Day 23: You Got This!

Hey there, welcome back to Yoga Anytime, Day 23. It's flowing by pretty fast, but this is worth a check-in. How do you feel? How does your body feel? How or if?

How does the practice translate off of the mat into your life? Anything going on? Different? You feeling different? Are you feeling the same?

It's all good? Just checking in. All right? Let's do more integration. We had that yesterday.

I was feeling it. We also have the dynamic go-to and a little stretch your back to close out. So Day 23, we're three plus weeks into this. Let's enjoy it while we have it. Let's come on down to our backs.

All right. So roll on down. And ah, for a moment, right? I know for me every time I land here, it feels nice, but it's also a little scary because I know what's about to happen. We got a little core love.

So let's draw the knees in and begin to stretch the left leg out. You got this. You got this all day. Lift the shoulders up off the mat, tuck into that right leg, and we'll do 10. And I mean it.

Not my usual, but like 10 real ones. So right knee in and left knee in. Try to lift as much of your upper back up off of the mat every time, maybe even sustain that the whole time. Now hands behind the head, exhale, left elbow to the right knee. That's two.

Right elbow, left knee, two. Good. Three. Nice little flow. Three, four, four, five, five, make sure you find some breath, six, six, seven, seven, eight, eight, nine, nine, ten, ten.

Release and relax for two full breaths, and we'll get right back at it. So take a full breath in, embrace the long exhale as rest. One more time. Breathe in. And exhale, breathe out.

That's redundant. I know. Okay. Right leg in. Let's finish strong in this core integration.

So that's one. Hands behind the head. Now before you start with the one, lift up higher, higher, higher, feel the core working. Good. Now switch.

Right elbow, left knee. In the direction. Doesn't have to touch. There's two. Two.

Three. Four, four, five, five, ouch, ouch, seven, seven, ouch, ouch, nine, nine, ten, ten. I'm going to feel that day 24. I hope we're not doing those again. Okay.

Let's rock and roll up to sit. Rock and roll the length of your back. Let's do this three or four times. Find a little freedom in the back body. Reach your arms up overhead when you roll back.

Come up into a controlled seat when you roll up. One more time. And nice. Come onto your hands and knees. Push the hips back.

Curl the toes under. Grab a little toe stretch. Draw the elbows down toward the mat, a little spiraling to connect to the back body for downward dog. Walk it out. Get those thighs engaged in this so we get that combination of strength building and flexibility while moving through the kind of walking out procedure in downward dog.

All right. Let's bring our knees down to the mat. Grab your blocks. They are going to be needed for this. Put them at the front of the mat where they would be for downward dog, plank, et cetera.

Good, curl the toes, lift back up into downward dog. So dynamic go-to flow. Done it before. This time we're going to add some tree pose toward the end to work on some balance. So let's take the right leg up.

Before we get to tree, let's enjoy this little practice of stepping the right foot up to the front of the mat on the outer edge of the block. Can you step it up out wide? Let's drop into the hips. Keep the hands on the blocks, pull the shoulders back, and see how low you can get that left knee as you come into almost what might feel like a little back bend as well. Good.

Inhale, lift the hips, stretch out that right leg, exhale, drop on in. Inhale, hips lift, exhale, hips drop down. Come back into the lunge position. Let's work on that upper two-thirds of your back, that thoracic spine. Roll the right elbow up and open as you place the right hand behind the head.

Exhale the right elbow toward the left forearm. Inhale, rotate open. Try not to move your hips too much. The inclination here is to drop the left hip to get more space. But see if you can keep the hips just as they are, and rotate that way.

One more time. Exhale, right elbow to the left forearm, and rotate, rotate, rotate, find your space. Boom, nice. Come on down, right hand to the block. Lift your right foot up to step back into downward dog.

Take a breath. One time into plank, kind of hold yourself there for a moment, feel the abdominals working, your thighs working, and push back into dog pose. Lift your left leg up on the breath in. Sweep it up to the block on the left, so the outer edge. Sink down into the hips, hands on the blocks, chest lifting, and inhale.

Lift those hips straight, not the left leg. Maybe this time you come on to the left heel. That changes things up a little bit in the hamstrings. Exhale, hips down, chest up. So we're looking for a little flow, a little bit of ease as you straighten the left leg.

Lift the hips. Come on down to the lunge. One more time. Dip. So you dip to the right just to get that stretch through the hip flexor on the right side.

Okay. Come back into the strong, more rigid setup for the lunge. Left hand behind the head firmly, rotate open to the left into the twist, good. Left elbow toward the right forearm on the exhale, pull the low belly in, inhale, open up, and exhale, left elbow toward the right forearm. Keep your right thigh strong, your right leg like it's in plank.

One more time. Open up on the breath in, breath out, little core strong, rotation here in the trunk, and lift up, up, up with the elbow, and left hand down to the block. Good. Step the right foot up, squat pose. Sink down into the hips.

Find some support using the arms on the inner thighs, hands in that prayer-like position at the chest, and the chest lifting, heart lifting, spine neutral. Inhale, rise all the way up. Exhale, come down into squat pose. Step back into plank pose, downward dog. You're doing great.

Steady, committed, dedicated, making it happen for yourself, right? That's what it comes down to, is you are making the choice to make it happen for yourself. So cool. Take the right leg up, breathe in. Step it up and out wide as you breathe out.

Good. Step the left foot up into squat. Inhale, rise up, exhale, squat pose, plank pose, downward dog. Left leg up on the inhalation, exhale, step it up, pause, breathe in, and exhale. Right foot up, squat down, rise up, breathe in, and palms rest at the heart as you breathe out.

Okay, my friend, we are moving into tree pose. So I'll face you. I'm going to move the blocks out of the way, and we will join one another in tree pose. So I start with the right leg. This is the first time in these 23 days that I'm actually offering tree pose.

So let's start from the ground up. Press the palms at the chest, bend your left knee, and turn your left knee out, placing your left heel just above your right ankle. So if you've got some balance trouble, those left toes are helpful in keeping your balance. You can build it by bringing the foot up the right calf below the knee, keep the hip open, palms at the heart again, or begin to take your arms up and out wide like you would like a shape of a Y. Even cactus arms work.

Okay, find that fixed focal point that I didn't mention. So my fixed focal point is right there, right at you. Okay, nice. Breathe in, reach the arms high, and breathe out, exit. That was a smooth exit for me.

Okay, let's try it on the other side, see how it feels. Totally different from right to left. So start by bending the right leg, turn the hip open, place the heel just above the ankle, stay here, or slide that right foot up the calf, push the foot into the calf or the leg, and push the leg into the foot, squeeze through the glutes, lift out of the waist a little bit, lengthen the spine, and then let the arms come up nice and high. Good, make sure the abdominals are working to support that center piece of you, right? It's normal to wobble left and right, front and back on that left ankle.

Consider that a positive, right? All the muscles and bones and the ankle and foot, they're working. They're waking up after being in shoes so much, right? Good, so let's get one more breath here, full expression, wherever that is for you. And relax.

Good work. Let's transition into stretch your back. So walk the feet out, we'll come down through a squat pose, have your blanket nearby. So come down through a squat. Say hello.

Hands behind you if that's helpful. Come down to the seat, grab that blanket, prop your seat up on the blanket. So from here, let's take the bottoms of the feet together for bound angle. Make sure the edge of your seat is up on the edge of the blanket to keep the pelvis lifted up in the back. So a little forward tilt, okay?

So I've taught this or we've shared this pose together quite a few times and you've got three options. First one would be fold forward and down because that feels good and you're listening and paying attention as always. Or hands behind you, chest and heart lifting, maybe even let the head come back. Or neutral, hands on the ankles, spine long, maybe even close your eyes and find some relaxed breath work, right? So relaxed inhale, relaxed exhale.

I might drift forward a little bit. So I really encourage you here for about three or four breaths to find your position. Where do you feel it? Is it in the low back? Do you feel your inner thighs stretching a little bit?

What's the degree? Is it 100% and you can't take it? Or are you able to kind of hover in a 60, 70% stretch and feel okay about that? Let's come up, if you're not already up, cross the legs. Spinal twist, you've got to start with that spine nice and long.

Let's take the arms up overhead as you breathe in. As you breathe out, rotate to the right, take the left hand to the right thigh, right hand back behind you. Good. As you rotate, take a gaze over the right shoulder. This is meant to just sort of like stretch your back, right?

Stretch your back, rinse out the back a little bit, internal organs. Bring it back to center, sweep the arms up overhead and exhale, rotate, kind of like a helicopter with the arms, right hand to the left thigh, left hand back behind you. Before you max out, lengthen the spine, hug the belly in a little bit for some support and rotate to the left. Let's see if I can see any dolphin action out there. Get back over to center, bring the palms to the heart.

Nice. That was a negative, I didn't see any dolphins, but next time, maybe day 24. Okay, move the blanket out of the way or keep it because you like having it when you roll down to your back. But go ahead and roll down to your back. Bring the feet down to the mat, below your knees, start to roll up and down a couple times, bridge roll ups, a familiar movement we've done several times and varying openings and closes.

So just kind of roll up and down your spine in a way that feels nurturing or relaxing or energizing, you know, so you choose right now. For me, this is like kind of like, ah, relaxing. Not because it's easy, but just because this movement for me feels relaxing. So how does it feel for you? And if you don't feel much, how can you create more sensation through a shift of the feet or maybe through the arm, so maybe you hold bridge pose with the hands in her lace, that's an option.

But for now, right, roll all the way down, draw the knees into the chest. You can bring the knees in super tight to one another and lift the chest and forehead up toward the thighs like you're in a deep child's pose, and this enables you to kind of like rock from left to right, stretching out the big muscles that line the spine in the center of the back. You could take the knees a little bit wider. Nice, bring the feet down, stretch the legs out. For this practice here, the option would be to place the right hand on the belly and the left hand up on the heart and to feel the breath in and out.

In and out, meaning that when you breathe in, your belly expands and travels all the way up into the left hand and the right side, so the full complete breath in and breath out. So the hands are actually connecting to that breath in and breath out, that life force, that constant companion, the breath. You might feel your heartbeat, you might feel different body parts begin to relax even more, your legs, your hips, your shoulders, and stretch the arms up overhead like you're taking that full body stretch first thing in the morning, arching the back a little bit. Draw the knees in, hug onto the hamstrings or the shins, and slowly with control roll up to sit. So I want to close out just by acknowledging that I have no idea what you go through every day to make this video happen, to make this practice happen.

So if you're like any other human out there, we have a lot of other things that you could be doing beyond this. So huge props to you, acknowledging the commitment and dedication piece. So I hope that comes through. It means a lot to me. So thank you for joining me.

Namaste. Day 23. Boom.