Day 1: Just Show Up

(ocean waves rolling) Hey! What's going on? Welcome to Yoga Anytime. This is the first of 30. Thanks for showing up. You ready? I am. Let's go.

Stick with me. Come to the front of the mat. I'll check in with you every once and awhile. Let's do this together. I'm here with you. I'll do my best to give you the best instruction for the best experience possible, all right?

Front of your mat. Mountain pose. Feet grounded. Legs strong. Neutral pelvis.

Long spine. Your core is gently braced. There's a tention. Attention to detail in the standing position. Shoulders back. Chest open.

Strong back. Chin down just a little bit. Head back. Like you're ready, right? You're ready for battle, almost.

It's a gentle, yoga battle. From here, breathe in. As you breathe in, take the arms up, sweep them up. Press your palms together and exhale all the way down into your forward bend. I like to bend my knees quite a bit, especially for the first few.

Finish the exhale. The head rock from side to side. Slide the hands up your shins, just below the knees. Push your chest away, halfway up, for a flat back. That's the inhalation for a long, extended spine.

Half-forward bend. Exhale, fold. Inhale, roll up. Exhale, palms to the chest. Inhale, circle the arms out and all the way up as you maintain strong legs.

Exhale, forward bend. Inhale, half lift. Exhale, fold. Inhale, roll up. Exhale, palms to the chest.

Inhalation, reach up. Stretch your entire body. Exhale, forward bend. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold.

Inhale. Arms up. Arms up. Arms up. Stretch. Palms to the chest. Exhale. Good.

You with me? Gonna build. We'll add some lunge. Lunge action, here. Same thing. That was a half salute. We'll just build on to the half salute.

Palms at your chest. At your heart. Ready. Ready. Ready. Ready poisition. Inhale, arms reach up. Exhale, fold.

Inhale, lift halfway. I didn't mention it before, but one of my favorite cues here, try it out. This part of your palm on each palm. Push it into the tops of your thighs, right in the hip creases. As you push back, lengthen, take the head and reach it out.

You're separating the bone structure, almost. Shoulders back. Breathe in. Exhale, fold. Knees bent. Step the right foot back.

Bring the knee down. I like a 90 degree front leg. 90 degree back leg. If I take it really deep and I try to reach up, sometimes it can get into your back. Let's start a little more on the neutral side.

90, 90. Hips square. Arm position straight up or bent. Good. We move forward, you can pick your posture.

The idea is to build the shape that feels proper for you. Like building a home, in a sense. In the home, this is my home, for right now. My shape that I've decided to build. It feels good.

Then I add breath to the shape. The overall experience. I'm paying attention. I'm watching. I'm feeling.

You'll get that a lot as I build into these postures. Breathe in. Breathe out, hands come down. Step the right foot up to meet your left. Exhale.

Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold. Step the left foot back. Bring the knee down. Finish the exhale.

Start to build the shape. Inhale. The shape is here, your breath is here. You're overall awareness and mindfulness to your experience is here as well. Breathe in.

Reach up. Maybe tip back just a little bit. Breathe out. Hands come down. Step the left foot up to meet your right.

Fold. Exhale. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold. Roll up, inhale. Exhale, palms to your chest.

Let's try that again. Breathe in. Reach up. Palms pressing together. Exhale, palms together. Down the midline of your body.

Knees bent, forward bend. Inhale, lift halfway. Let's do the left back this time. Exhale, left foot back. Knee down. Get your positioning and rise up for the breath in.

Exhale, hands come down. Step the left foot up to meet your right. Exhale. Inhale, lift. Exhale, right foot back.

Knee down. Finish the exhale. Rise up on the breath in. Exhale, hands come down. Step the right foot up to meet your left.

Exhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold. Inhale, rise up. Exhale, mountain pose.

Palms at the chest. From here, same exact thing, half salute, adding high lunge this time. Pause. Breathe in, circle the arms up. Breathe out, come on down and do the forward bend.

Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fingertips down to the mat. Right foot back. Not too far. Put a soft little bend in the right knee.

Stay up on the fingertips, for now. Try to look forward, just a bit, to keep the back long. Now, gradually, bring your hands up to your thigh. Left thigh. Hips square.

Left foot grounded. Watch my left knee. It's not out here, in front. It's stacked right over the ankle or a little bit further back. My hands are here for support.

Shoulders back. Tailbone draws back. Little bend in the back, right knee. From here, go ahead and rise up. Keep extending the tailbone down.

Left hip back, right hip forward. I left out one huge cue, my friends. Feet are about hip width. If you're on a tightrope, that's gonna make the posture more difficult in every way. Here we go.

Feet hip width. Got the knee bent, tailbone down. Good left leg, strong. Where do you wanna put your arms? Bring them up.

Find that same position that worked for the low lunge. Of course, breathe. Steady gaze. Breathe in, reach the arms up. The transition is exhale the hands down and as you're bringing the hands down, stepping the right foot up to meet you left.

Exhale everything out. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fingertips. Left foot back. Feet hip width.

Get the structure. The framming. The foundation. Building the house to rise up. Keep in mind, when in doubt, if I'm not here for you, which I'll always be here for you, I promise, build the postures from the ground up.

Can't go wrong. Feet, legs, hips, core, arms. If you have more than those things, I'd like to meet you. (chuckling) You get the pose. Steady gaze.

Breathe. We'll get into more specific breathing patterns and techniques. Breathe in, reach up. Breathe out, transition. Hands come down.

Step the left foot up to meet your right. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold. Roll up, inhale. Exhale, plams to the chest.

Let's play with a little mountain pose. Wherever you are on your mat, feet hip width. Bend the left knee. Turn the left knee out. This is how I like to build it from the ground up. Left knee out.

Place the left heel just about the right ankle. Place the palms at your heart. Find a steady gazing point. Preferably, not at me, because if I wobble, it'll make you wobble. A spot in your house.

On the wall, floor, something. Here is great. If you find you're struggling with balance, leave your toes down for support or slide them up, just below the knee. Push the left foot into the right calf, the right calf into the foot. Stand tall.

Take the arms up. (gasping) Arms up. Tree pose. Try not to get into that negative, I'm wobbling so much. It's actually kinda cool to wobble because you're working all those tiny muscles around the feet, ankles, low leg, that don't really get worked that much.

If I go to the gym, I'm never ever, it's not on my list of things to do, I'm gonna do big ankles today. Yoga is kinda awesome because it gets into these different areas of the body that don't get adjusted at the gym so much. Bring it on down, exhale. I was wobbling like crazy there, but positive. It's all good.

Let's try the other side. I'm actually, maybe, even better in the other side. We'll see. Knee bent, open. Heel just above the ankle.

Find those qualities of mountain pose. Here we go. Stay here, if you'd like. Or build up. If you're here and you build up and you're just like this the whole time, it might feel better just to keep the toes down and play around with lifting the toes just a little bit.

Just to gain that confidence and to know you've got that support right there. You choose tree pose. Arms up. Grounded and lifted at the same time. Certain amount of effort involved.

But where's the ease? Breathe in and exhale. Palms to the chest. Awesome! Good job. Let's come to the front of the mat.

You might already be there. When in doubt, and I'll probably say it over and over, if you find that you're fatigued, you find that you're out of sorts in the practice, pause. Pause, close your eyes, bring your palms to your heart. Take a breath in. Breath out.

For me, it immediately... (breath wooshing) let's go of everything from the past and brings my entire focus to now. Half salute. Breath in, reach up. Breathe out, forward bend.

Breathe in, lift halfway. Breathe out, table top. Hands come down, step back. Hands and knees pose. Spread your fingers wide.

Bring your knees below the hips. Hands below the shoulders or slightly forward, just a little bit. Breathe in, cow pose. Belly down. Sit bones up. Shoulders back. Chest forward.

Exhale from the belly. Begin to pull your stomach up, up, up, as you draw your tailnbone down and shoulderblades way apart. Nice full, flexed feeling in your back body. Two more. Breathe in.

Cow pose. Exhale, cat pose. Breathe in. Cow pose. Breathe out. Cat pose.

Breathe in. Table top. Neutral position. Spread your fingers really wide. Draw your elbows in the direction of your thighs. This will help plug your hands in a little bit more and also engage.

Connect your arms, shoulders and your back. Don't let the elbows flair out because this connection is gone. Downward-facing dog. Once you get the hands in, curl the toes under. Lift those knees just a little bit.

Bracing through the belly, reach your bum back towards your heels, closing off this gap here, from your thighs and your stomach. Kind of like so. Like you're trying to spread the mat apart. From here, maintaining a nice, long spine, lift your seat up. Don't feel, right away, that you need to straighten those legs an get your heels down, okay?

It doesn't matter. Bend the knees. Make the priority the spine. Lengthen through the spine. Freedom in the neck.

Maybe press one leg straight, then the other. Kinda feel your way. Right now is the time. You've built the shape. You're breathing. You're feeling.

Now you add a little bit of movement to it. Make it feel useful, like this posture is actually useful for me. On your next exhale, bring the knees down and come on to your backs. Spin around on to your seat. Whichever transition makes most sense to you.

Maybe roll down with your knees bent, arms out in front of you, using your stomach muscles to control the descent. When you land, hug the knees into your chest for a moment. Good. Good. From here, we'll just do a little taste of abs. If you bring your knees and legs 90 degrees.

Bring your arms straight up, lift your shoulders up off of the mat. Head is in line with the spine. You're not lifting with your neck. Breathe in. As you exhale, keep your legs just as they are, but reach up and touch the ceiling.

One. Lower down, but don't lower all the way. Exhale, two. Inhale. Exhale, three.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Four. Five. Exhale, six. Exhale, seven.

Exhale, eight. Exhale, nine. Exhale, ten. Lower down. Hug the knees in one more time.

Bring your feet down to the mat. Take both feet down to the mat, shift your hips over to the left. Extend your right leg out. Hug your left leg in. Take hold of the left knee with your right hand.

Left arm all the way out. Breathe in and as you exhale, twist over to the right. You can keep your gaze straight up or look to your left. Just a little release. A nice, little release in the low back.

Bring it back up to center. Take a squeeze. Left knee in toward the chest. Good. Release.

Both knees bent. Shift over to the right. Extend the left leg out, bend the right in. Left hand on the right thigh. Reach the right arm out.

Take a breath in. Exhale, twist to the left. Whatever tension you may have accumulated in the practice or whatever you may have in your low back. Out through that hip, right side. Pull the belly in on the next exhale.

Twist a little deeper, if you'd like. Good. Come back out. Both feet down. Center yourself on the mat one last time.

Spread your back nice and wide. Hug the knees in for one last knee to chest. You can wrap your arms all the way around, if you'd like. Forehead toward the knees. Roll up to sit.

Let's take one moment, here. Find a comfortable sitting position. Sit up nice and tall. Press the palms together at your chest. Let the eyes close for a few moments.

Remind yourself. If you're struggling with any body part, any part of any of the postures, let that stuff go. Remind yourself how important it is that you've shown up. You've showed up. This is one of 30 and it's such a freat adventure on the way.

Nothing but positive, positive, positive thoughts. You did amazing. Remind yourself of that. Namaste and I'll see you for number two. Thanks.