- Welcome to YNDI Yoga.

I'm Lana.

Enjoy this time to focus on you.

Meet yourself where you are.

(birds chirping) (calm percussive music begins) We're going to begin this balancing class with standing, breathing, Dandayamana Pranayama.

It's a wonderful breathing exercise to open up the lungs and connect the breath with the body.

Gonna be inhaling through the nose for six seconds and exhaling through the mouth for six seconds.

Begin with your feet together, or you can have your feet hip width apart if you have a back or hip injury.

Root down through the four corners of each foot and lengthen up through your spine.

Please watch as I demonstrate and I'll also offer a modification if you have a neck injury.

So in this breathing exercise interlace the fingers right underneath your chin, knuckles underneath, thumbs by the throat and focus forward.

Take an inhale, lift your elbows up.

Breathe in through your nose and with your throat lift your elbows up high as you fill your lungs.

Exhale, relax your head back.

Exhale through your mouth, make a ha sound with your breath and slowly bring your elbows together up off the chest.

Inhale, open your elbows and lower your chin.

Keep your fingers interlaced right underneath your chin, elbows up high, fill your lungs.

Exhale, slowly relax your head back.

Keep your back straight, belly in tight and elbows together.

If you have a neck injury, you can modify this.

Bring your fingertips to your ears, elbows out wide and with your exhale, slowly bring your elbows together in front of you.

Keep your focus forward.

Inhale, open up your elbows out to the side, and exhale through your mouth, making that ha sound.

Elbows come together in front of you.

So you always have this option to do as well if you have a neck injury.

Just fanning the elbows, open and closing them in without moving your neck.

So let's begin.

Introduce the fingers under your chin, knuckles underneath, thumbs by the throat.

Feel the weight in your heels.

Begin with an exhale.

Relax your head back with your elbows and exhale through your mouth.

Inhale, lower your chin, reach your elbows up.

Focus forward, engage your thighs, your glutes, fill your lungs.

Exhale, relax your your head back, try to keep your arms lifted, knuckles press under your chin and slowly elbows together.

Inhale, open your elbows, chin down, elbows up.

Suck your belly in, fill your lungs all the way to the top.

Exhale, slowly bring your head back.

As the knuckles press under the chin that helps protect the neck and belly in to protect your back.

Inhale, open your elbows, lower your chin.

Focus forward, eyes open, fill your lungs all the way to the top.

Exhale, relax your head back.

Keep your belly in, shoulders relax down, weight in the heels.

Inhale, open your elbows and lower your chin.

Fill your lungs.

Breathe into the lower lobes of your lungs.

Exhale, slowly relax your head back.

Let your exhale be as long as possible.

Elbows together.

Inhale, open your elbows, feel the nice rhythm of your breathing.

Clearing the mind.

Exhale, relax your head back.

Eyes open, gaze up towards the ceiling or up towards sky, elbows together.

Inhale, slowly bring your gaze to one point in front of you.

Tuck your lower ribs in.

Take another sip.

Exhale, ha sound.

Release anything not serving you, let it go with your exhale breath.

Inhale, slowly bring your chin down, reach your elbows up, fill the lungs all the way to the point where you almost feel a little dizzy.

Exhale, relax your head back.

Take your time.

Elbows together.

Inhale for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Exhale 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Inhale, feel the connection between the breath and the body.

Focus forward.

Use your throat to inhale, opening the passageway to the lungs.

Exhale, open your mouth, exhale through your mouth, it's like you're steaming up a mirror up on the ceiling.

Inhale, open your elbows and lower your chin.

So good for your respiratory system.

And exhale, relax your head back.

Keep your back straight, so the back never moves, shoulders down.

(calm percussive music continues) Relax your arms down to the side.

Ardha Chandrasana, half moon.

Inhale, lift your arms up overhead, interlace the fingers, release your index fingers, squeeze your grip, focus forward.

Feel the weight in your heels, thighs tight and slowly warm up.

Move to the right and to the left, side to side, just warming up the back and the spine.

Keep your focus forward.

And as you move to the right to the left, keep lifting up out of the waist.

(calm percussive music continues) Check in and see how your body's feeling today.

We'll meet back center, hold onto your left wrist, left palm facing forward.

Take an inhale and lengthen up, lengthen through your left arm and exhale, slowly bring your torso down to the right.

Keep your shoulders in, your hip square forward.

Chin up off the chest and breathe in and out through the nose.

So for the rest of your practice, you can just breathe through your nose nice and slowly and calmly.

Root down through your heels, and especially with your left foot, root your left foot down.

Push your hips to the left as you stretch over to the right, keeping the shoulders hip square forward and suck your belly in.

Feel the strength in your core supporting you.

Keep extending, feel the deep stretch to the whole left side body.

Come back to center, hold onto your right wrist with your left hand.

First take and inhale and lengthen up with your right arm.

Exhale, slowly come down to the left.

Focus on your alignment rather than your depth.

So the legs are straight, belly in tight and try to lengthen through your right arm.

Pretend you're threading your lower ribs together.

Feel the strength in your core supporting you and protecting your lumbar spine.

Shoulders hip square forward.

Focus forward.

Imagine you could fit a grapefruit between your chin and your chest, From the side, you're in one line, like you're in between two panes of glass.

Root down through your right foot, push your hips to the right and slowly come back through center.

We're gonna get ready for a back bend.

Interlace the fingers, release the index.

If you have a neck injury, you can keep your head with your arms and slowly go back with your head in between your arms.

If your neck is feeling good, start from the center and relax your head back, look up, reach your arms up, really lift up out of your lower back and slowly go back, bring your arms back.

Keep your legs straight and strong, so engage your thighs.

Feel the weight in your heels.

Keep lifting up out of your lower back.

Squeeze your grip.

Go back a little bit more.

Keep the arms straight, eyes open.

Slowly come back up through center.

Take an inhale and exhale hinge from your hips, you can always bring your hands to your thighs as you slowly fold forward and soften your knees.

Bring your hands to the ground and separate your feet hip width apart.

Lift your toes and stand on your palms.

Line up your toes with your wrist crease.

Relax your head down.

Shift the weight forward and you can bend your knees a lot here.

Feel the fold of your hip crease.

Try to smooth out any creases in your skin around your neck and your shoulders as that can be a sign of tension.

(calm percussive music continues) Just let your head relax down.

Feel the weight shift forward.

Breathe into your back, (calm percussive music continues) and release.

Release your hands out.

You can bring your feet back together if that's how you've been standing.

Take an inhale, flat back, exhale, fold, palms together, thumbs to your heart and round all the way up.

Chair pose, Utkatasana.

Take an inhale and sweep your arms up overhead.

Bend your knees, soften your hips down.

Reach your arms up high and lift your gaze, reach up through your fingertips.

Feel the weight in your heels.

If your legs and your feet are together press your legs together, suck your belly in, pull your navel into your spine.

Keep reaching up, lift your heart up.

Sit down a little deeper and inhale.

Come all the way up and exhale, arms down.

Inhale, lift your arms up.

Eagle, Garudasana.

Identify your right arm and your left and swing your right arm under the left, hook at your elbow, palms together, thumbs towards your face.

You can always start by holding your left thumb, and if your shoulders are very tight, you can hold your shoulders.

Eventually the palms come together.

You can always interlace your fingers and work your elbows down, then straighten out your hands and your fingers.

Bend your knees, soften into your hips, right leg high up over the left.

If you can, you can hook your toes behind your calf, but if not just point your right knee to the left.

Bend your standing leg.

Feel the internal rotation in the hip, so squeezing the legs together.

(calm percussive music continues) Eventually the right toes will hook behind the left calf.

(calm percussive music continues) Feel your arms squeeze together.

Two eyes in one point in front of you.

Make sure your hands are right in front of your nose.

Sit down a little deeper and release.

Feet together, inhale, lift your arms up high.

Exhale, left arm under the right, palms together, thumbs towards the face, you can always hold on to your right thumb here if you need to or your shoulders.

Eventually the palms come together.

Bend your knee, soften into your hips, just like in chair.

Lift your left leg high up over your right thigh.

Two eyes on one point.

Use your focus to eliminate distraction.

If you can, hook your left toes behind your right calf.

Feel your arms and your legs squeeze into the midline of the body.

At the beginning, you can bring your upper body little forward, and then with time, bring your chest back up.

Squeeze your arms and your legs in together.

This is so good for improving blood flow to your joints and also improving your focus on your mat and off your mat as well.

And release.

Take an inhale, lift your arms up high, exhale, arms down to the side.

(calm percussive music continues) Working on another balancing posture.

Shift the weight into your left leg and lift your right leg up, like you're stepping onto a big block.

So your right knee's at a right angle and flex your right foot.

Right away, bring attention to your standing leg and press your left foot down into the ground and lift your left hip up.

Lift your left knee, keep up, engage your left thigh, belly in, focus forward.

Feel the strength in your standing leg.

Reach the crown of your head up towards the sky, stay tall.

Belly in.

Engage your left thigh, engage your left glute, and release.

Other side, weight to your right leg, lift your left leg up, flex your left foot, so your left knee's at a right angle.

Flex your left foot, your left ankle here.

Flex your left toes back, dorsiflexion, and breathe.

Root down through your right foot, lift up a out of your right hip, engage your right thigh and your right glute, building strength in your standing leg.

Keep lengthening up, belly in, feel your core keeping your left leg lifted as well.

Shoulders relaxed.

Feel the breath in and out through the nose, and feel your focus strong.

Lower your left foot down.

Bring the weight into your left leg, lift your right knee up and you can hold right below your right knee, in this exercise we're gonna slowly open the knee out to this side, or you have the option, if your hamstrings are open, to your big toe, left hand to left tip, and inhale, slowly extend your right heel forward.

Again, it's fine to hold your right knee as well.

And exhale, open your right leg to the right.

You can stay here or extend your left arm out.

Root down through your left foot.

If you'd like to challenge your balance, slowly bring your gaze to the left.

Bring your left hand to your left hip, right leg forward, you're holding the toe, bend your right knee and place your right foot down.

Other side, wait to your right leg.

Hold onto your left knee, just below the knee.

Again, just to demonstrate, we're gonna open the knee out to the side or you can hold your or big toe.

Take an inhale and extend it forward.

Right hand to right hip.

(calm percussive music continues) Stand up tall.

Feel the strength of your standing leg.

Inhale and exhale.

Open your left leg to the left.

You can extend your right arm out and spread your fingers.

If you like to challenge your balance, slowly gaze towards your right hand.

Focus on your strong standing leg.

Right hand to right hip.

Slowly bring your left leg forward.

If you're holding the toe, bend your left knee and lower your left foot down.

(calm percussive music continues) Standing bow, Dandayamana Dhanurasana.

Bend your right elbow, right palm up.

Bring your hand to the right, lower your hand down and hold the inside of your ankle, so the inside of the right arm is facing the right.

If you have very tight shoulders, where you can't hold the inside of the ankle, you can always hold the outside here to modify.

Inhale, lift your left arm forward and up.

Engage your left arm and reach up through your left fingertips.

You can begin with your knees together, feel your balance here and your foundation and your starting point, and slowly take your time.

Kick back into your right hand to allow your body to come down a little bit.

Keep the energy in your left arm, reach through your fingertips and kick back into your right hand, so your shoulders are stretching apart, the right knee goes behind you, so when your toes are coming up over your head, the toes point straight up.

Shift the weight a little forward, reach through your left arm and if there's a mirror, your left fingertips line up with your eye.

Kick back, kick up, point your toes up and slowly come all the way up.

Lower your right foot down.

(calm percussive music continues) Bend your left arm, left hand to the left, lower your left hand down and hold it inside of your left ankle, all five fingers together.

Inhale, right arm forward and up.

Begin with your knees together.

Root down through your right foot and lift up out of your right hip.

(calm percussive music continues) So it's the same principles that we are working on in the other balancing postures.

Keep pressing down to lift.

Kick back and reach, focus forward, where your eyes go the body will follow, so don't look down to the ground, look straight ahead.

Eventually when your body comes down, the lower abdomen is parallel to the the ground, so you're doing a back bend, a hip opener, a shoulder opener and a hamstring stretch.

Keep reaching through your right arm.

Kick back into your left hand and try to kick up a little bit.

Lift up out of your right hip and slowly come all the way back to your setup and lower or left foot down.

Step back to the back of your mat, Tuladandasana, balancing staff.

Inhale, lift your arms up, interlace the fingers, release your index, bicep by the ears, step up with your right foot, point your left toes, engage your muscles here and slowly bring your body down.

You can come down five degrees, 10 degrees, eventually the body's parallel to the ground.

Keep your arms by your ears and your left leg straight.

Point your left toes.

Step your left foot back and then the right.

Keep your arms strong.

Step up with your left foot.

Tighten your grip.

Point your right toes and slowly bring your body down.

As you come down, look at the ground four to eight feet in front of you.

Point your right knee down to the ground to keep the hips more square.

Reach forward as you kick back.

Point your right toes, biceps to the ears.

Try to squeeze your biceps to the ears.

Breathe.

This is so good for your heart, for your cardiovascular system.

And release, right foot back, then the left.

And exhale, arms down to the side.

(calm percussive music continues) Come to the center of your mat for tree.

You can bring your right foot to your inner calf, or your right foot to your inner thigh, or if you would like a deeper hip opener you can do half lotus and hold your right foot with your left hand, left palm facing up and forward and allow your right knee to fall down and back.

Right hand to heart center.

If your right foot can balance high up on your left thigh in half lotus, you can bring both hands to heart center, but it's fine too, just to hold your foot the whole time.

Confine your own expression here in your tree, so feel free to lift your arms up, reach up through your fingertips, root down through your left foot, feel the earth and the ground below you.

Slowly bring your hands back down through heart center, right knee forward and right foot down.

Weight into the right leg, left foot to the inner calf, or the inner right thigh, and then you just bring both palms together right away, or you can hold onto your left foot, high up on your right thigh with your right hand and start by just bringing your left hand to heart center.

If your foot can stay there without slipping, right hand to left.

Root down through your right foot and lift up out of your right hip.

Stay here or lift your arms up, reach up through your fingertips.

And breathe.

You're the sky above you.

(calm percussive music continues) Slowly bring your palms back together, thumbs to the heart, left knee forward and left foot down.

Slowly make your way onto the ground and lay down onto your back.

(calm percussive music continues) Bring the soles of your feet together, open your hips and your knees.

Relax here.

You can have your arms to your side or place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart.

And breathe into your heart space, connect to stillness.

(calm percussive music continues) Bring your knees in and extend your legs back down the mat.

(calm percussive music continues) Pavanamuktasana.

Bend your right knee into your chest, interlace the fingers right below your right knee, elbows in and gently pull your right knee in towards your right shoulder.

Keep your left calf on the ground, so the left leg stays straight and tuck your chin in.

You're gonna take this into a twist, slowly bring your right knee to the left and extend your right arm out.

Gaze over your right shoulder.

You can have your left hand outside your right knee and melt your right shoulder down.

Both shoulder blades on the ground.

And back to center, and extend your legs back down.

Left knee in, interlace fingers right below the knee in the top of your chin and gently squeeze your left knee in towards your left shoulder.

This is so good for your digestive system and also improving circulation to your hips.

Keep your chin in, squeeze your left knee and breathe into it.

Slowly, we'll make our way into the twist.

You can scoot your hips to the left and bring your left knee over to the right, extend your left arm out, left palm on the ground and relax and let go.

Just relax here.

Feel this nice stretch for your hips, your lower back and your shoulders.

(calm percussive music) Come back to center, extend your legs down.

Hip stretch.

Bend your legs right ankle on the left knee, thread your right hand through in between the legs and hold right behind your left thigh.

Flex your feet.

Pull your left leg in, push your right thigh away.

Extend your legs back down.

Bend your legs again, other side, left ankle on right knee, left hand comes through in between the legs, hold behind your right thigh, flex your feet to protect your knees.

Push your hips away as you pull.

(calm percussive music continues) And release.

Final Shavasana.

Separate your legs and your arms.

Get ready for a deep relaxation, so make sure you're comfortable, there's no tension in your shoulders, no tension in your hips.

If it's comfortable for your shoulders your palms face up, being ready to receive.

Enjoy the improved focus and clarity you'll have for your day and your world after this practice today.

(birds chirping) And feel the earth holding you and supporting you.

(birds chirping) Feel the space between you and your thoughts.

(birds chirping) Completely relax and let go, let go deeply.

(birds chirping) Without opening your eyes, slowly bring your knees in and go to your side to a fetal position.

If it's comfortable, you can spin your third eye, your eye of intuition down to the ground to connect to the earth below you.

Come up to a seat.

You can sit comfortably, sit cross-legged or you can kneel.

Sit up tall, palms together, thumbs to the heart.

Bring your thumbs up to your third eye, right above your eyebrows.

Make it a wonderful day.

Namaste.

(calm percussive music continues) (calm percussive music fades out) (calm bright music) (bright music) (bright music)