Day 11: Trust and Adjust

Hey, welcome back to day 11. Thanks for joining me. Thank yourself more than anybody else. And reminder, this is about finding your practice, what works for you. So that's based on how you feel, right?

Trust how you feel in the poses, adjust and modify as it's appropriate for you. Okay? That's huge, huge, huge, huge. So we're going to begin standing in our standing solutes. We did this yesterday.

Come on down. So we're going to bring one block, got one block for the entire practice. So we're going to leave that there for myself. You grab yours. Let's do that.

Take a deep breath at the front of the mat. And exhale, arrive. Here we are. Now breathe in, reach the arms up overhead and exhale, forward bend. Stretch the necessary parts.

Inhale, lift the chest, lengthen the spine and exhale, fold it over. Inhale, rise all the way up, get that big full body stretch. Let's go all the way back down. Forward bend, exhale. Inhale, lift the chest, the heart, lengthen the spine and exhale, fold.

Inhale, rise all the way up and exhale, palms to the heart. Inhale, reach the arms out and all the way up, exhale, forward bend. Once again, inhale, lift, half arch, exhale, step the right foot back, bring the right knee down, finish the exhale, untuck the back toes and inhale, bring the arms up overhead. Interlace the hands back behind you. Draw the chest and heart forward as you roll the shoulders back and down.

Good. Release the arms. Inhale, bring the arms up overhead, you're going to add a pose today. Exhale the hands down, curl the back toes, lift that right knee. Open up into a twist so you rotate the rib cage open to the left and sweep that left arm nice and high.

Exhale the left hand down, pause here, look forward, lengthen the spine, exhale, straighten out your left leg a little bit. Inhale back into the lunge, exhale, straighten out the left leg a bit, good. Come back into the lunge, step the right foot up to meet the left forward bend, exhale. Inhale, half lift and exhale, left foot back, let's do the same thing, so you bring the left foot back, knee down, inhale, sweep the arms up overhead and all the way back behind you, interlace the fingers, open up the chest, you can curl or tuck, curl and tuck is the same thing. You can curl or uncurl your back toes.

Lift the chest, roll the shoulders back, grab that sensation there for a moment, inhale, reach the arms up and exhale the hands down, curl the back toes, lift the left knee, good. Open up into the twist so there's this rotation through the rib cage, rib cage, spinal column there, reach the arm up, right arm and now exhale your right arm back down. Look forward, lengthen your spine and on the exhale, straighten out your right leg as much as it feels appropriate for you and then you inhale back into the lunge and exhale, straighten your right leg. Back into the lunge, step the left foot up to meet your right, fold, exhale, inhale, lift halfway, lengthen the spine every time you come here and exhale, fold, inhale, rise all the way up and exhale, palms to the heart, preparing for the side facing sequence, alright. So let's take the left foot, step it back, warrior two, alright so the left foot you step it back toward the edge of the mat.

So the back foot is kind of parallel with the back edge of the mat, right foot is directly forward, right knee toward the right pinky toe, hips are open, spine is long, arms are out parallel with the floor. There is a little bit of a tailbone extension that you might want to work with as well. Engage the abdominals, find that nice strong grounded warrior two and you keep this shape most of it to move into extended side angle. So the right forearm lands on the thigh, circle the left arm forward and then all the way up palm facing, well palm facing me possibly, mine is facing you and now rotate the ribcage open a little bit more while pulling and hugging that right hip back. You can put an angle on that left arm, so you get the full expression of the pose like your pose, your expression and now I'm going to stay right here, reach to get the block.

Place the block on the inside of my foot, right foot, straighten out your right leg. Take the left hand to the left hip for a moment, straighten your right leg without locking it. Okay, now push firmly into all different various bones and muscles of your feet so you feel grounded. Let the left hip open up a little bit, ribcage open up a little bit, left arm extends high for triangle pose. How can the breath support you here?

Right, you need a deep breath, take a deep breath, okay, half moon, left hand, place your left hand on your left hip, bend your right leg, grab hold of the block and come into a little casual warrior two for a moment. Slide your left foot forward a little bit, when you're ready, look forward, find your gazing point, lift your left leg up, balancing strong on that right leg, place your block down below say your right shoulder and begin to find that distance that you lift your left foot up. It could be toes are down, could be up a little bit higher, a little bit higher, it could be level with the floor. It's not an easy pose, do your best. You can leave your left hand on your hip or you can extend your left arm high.

Your gaze can remain down, could be to the side. We can make a little eye contact for a moment, maybe a little smile, good, open up, open up, alright, from half moon, bend the right leg and step back with control into warrior two. Good job, reverse warrior, reach up and back and then exhale, windmill the arms down, step back into plank pose, alright. So plank pose, we did this yesterday, we kind of paused for a moment. You know right away whether you're going to bring your knees down, you bring your knees down and you feel good about it, okay.

If you're going to lift your knees up, make sure you keep good form, push the heels back, engage the thighs, draw your tailbone back in the direction of your heels, that'll kind of pull up through the belly. Hands below the shoulders, rotate your elbows towards your toes, okay. Now side plank, right hand, slide it over a little bit to the left and take the heels to the right. I'm just going to stagger the heels, left arm reaches up nice and high, keep rotating like screwing that whole right hand and right arm into the mat. Bring your right knee down if that helps be more productive in the pose.

Really nice. Right arm comes down, you can bring it right down where you'll have it for the left side. Heels over to the right, right arm high, or heels over to the left, right arm nice and high, screw that left arm in, engage through the upper back, holding yourself up here for a moment, good. Right arm, bring it on down, square off and plank. On your exhalation, let's lower down, I'm going to lower down halfway, inhale, upward facing dog, roll those shoulders back, heart forward and downward dog exhale, good, always.

So that little portion there is really up to you, that's the one where you got to listen, you got to tune in, what's appropriate for you, what's not appropriate, good. Let's walk up to the front of the mat. And I say appropriate meaning like given where you are now, given how your shoulder feels or what kind of strength you're working with, inhale, lift halfway and exhale, fold. Exhale rise all the way up and exhale the palms to the heart, good work. So let's step the left foot back, okay, this is the back side of the mat, your mat, step to the left foot, the left foot to the back side of your mat and situate yourself for warrior two, all right.

So what I'm going to do, and you can do this as well, wherever your block is, try to kind of like do it as a little movement here, so I'm going to do a side lunge to get the block, bring it up and bring it back because that's what we'll use for triangle and half moon. All right, now that you've done that, which is a pose, which is a movement, which is yoga, right, back into warrior two, remember all the different cues, extended side angle, left forearm rests on that left thigh, rotate that rib cage open, right arm reaching up and over toward the back side of the mat, keep adjusting, like for me, and see how that feels for you is like when you're here, maybe it's not locked out, you roam around in the shoulder blade a little bit, right, create a little movement that might feel nice for you. Now from here, grab your block, place it on the inside of that left ankle, straighten out the right leg, shorten your stance a tiny bit, start upright. Okay, here we are, we're connected, you and I, right? Left leg, slightly bent, stay out of the joint, extend long through the left arm, left arm, left side body, reach, reach, reach, then the hand, left hand, your left hand, reaches down to the block, bring that right arm of yours all the way up, so you've got two points of contact in your feet, pull back into your core for stability, the left hand is some contact on the block and you reach that right arm nice and high, find your gazing point, your breath, good job, okay, really nice, bring your right hand to your right hip, bend your left leg and come up momentarily, preparing for half moon, so it takes the gazing point, so find your gazing point, keep the right hand on your hip, maybe shorten your stance a tiny bit, now when you're ready, leap forward or glide forward onto the left leg, place the block down wherever it feels helpful and supportive, lift the right leg up as high as you can but keep it hip height, you don't need to lift it up any higher than that, now push through the ball of your right foot, this will ensure that your right leg stays active, reach the right arm high if that's in your capability or interest, that's a perfect example for you right now, it's like make it your own, maybe making it your own is hand on the hip, maybe that keeps your balance better, maybe reaching up you feel more of a stretch across the chest, what is it for you, okay, now bend your left leg, you can leave the block exactly where it is, back into warrior two, turn your feet directly forward both feet directly forward, put a slight bend in your knees, push the hips back and fold forward first coming onto the fingertips so you maintain that flat back, you can stay here or exhale, come a little bit further down, you can even widen your stance a little bit more, if you want continuous movement, lift halfway, breathe in, exhale fold, inhale lift, exhale fold, good, come back up halfway, turn both feet out 45 degrees and we begin to side lunge, just enough, so on the left, I'm going over to the left, I've got this big stretch up the inner right thigh, where do you feel it, right, how far over do you want to go, good, back and forth, just a little wake up in that area, alright, really nice, now bring yourself all the way over to the front side of your mat, step the right foot back into plank, no rush, exhale lower down halfway, upward dog inhale and downward dog exhale, place the knees down on the mat, find child's pose, rest your head on your forearms, your wrists, the floor, okay, let's begin to transition into our stretch your back closing, one of my favorites, I'm going to move the block out of the way and come into bound angle, so inner thigh stretch we'll call it, groin stretch, draw the bottoms of the feet together, walk the sit bones back to tip the pelvis forward a little bit, lift the chest on the inhalation and exhale, bring yourself forward and down, if that doesn't work for you I've given you other options in prior stretch your back closings, reminder would be to sit upright or even bring the hands a little further back behind you to push the chest up, shoulders back, so you still get that passive or intense leg stretch, let's take another three breaths together as we kind of slow things down, begin to relax and find some interesting little places to stretch, nice, okay, let's come back up to sit, cross your legs as best you can, do half lotus full lotus if that's your thing, I like to kind of do this little half lotus thing, inhale bring the arms up overhead and exhale rotate to the right, spinal twist seated, left hand to the right thigh, right hand back behind you, just find that position that shape that allows you to feel like you're getting a little rinse or release in the low back or the ribcage, bring it back over to center, real line, take the arms up overhead as you breathe in, exhale hug the belly in, rotate the trunk of the body, right hand to the left thigh, left hand back behind you, once you get there you can see I've kind of rounded a little bit, I'm going to lift up, lengthen as I breathe in and exhale rotate to the left, nice, let's bring it back out, say hello, come on down to your back, draw the knees in, maybe rock a tiny bit, bring the feet down to the mat, inhale bridge roll-ups, one of my favorites how do they feel for you, right, on the exhale roll back down, it doesn't even have to be a big motion, just something so nice about lifting the hips, drawing the knees forward which kind of stretches through your thighs and hip flexors, you get this shoulder movement, exhale lower down, one more time, breathe in, lift the hips, rotate the arms up and back, palms facing up, get the biggest stretch yet here in bridge and then slowly down and while you're lowering down there's this sense of closure that's happening as well, take a deep breath here and exhale palms of the feet together, knees out wide, arms resting alongside your body, take a full breath and exhale everything out, so pay attention to how you feel, what are those common thoughts, that internal critic, so that's part of the awareness and part of the paying attention as well, it's not just the body but it's like your thoughts, how you treat yourself, okay, let's take one more breath here together, stretch the arms up overhead like we do, breathe in fully, stretch the legs out fully, big, big, big, big, kind of morning wake up breath and exhale everything out, roll onto your side and push yourself up to sit, okay, alright, so if I could take more time I would and I would say thank you, thank you, thank you a million times for being here with me but I'll say it one time, day 11 thank you, thank yourself, peace, namaste, all of that good stuff.