Yoga For Sick Recovery

Hi everyone and welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and this is Benji. And today we have a yoga for sickness recovery. Post sickness, you're recovering from illness. A lot of us have been there lately and I wanted to make a practice that you could turn to when you were feeling pretty frustrated from being sick and yet needing to do something for your body. It's really hard to move and nurture the body when you're sick for so long. So I hope this practice really supports you in just getting a little bit of loving gestures back into the body, some nice easy breath. Bring some blankets and a pillow if you have it. If not, just come on down to the ground in your comfy clothes and let's get started. All right, my sweet friend. I hope you're already down on the ground. But if not, take your time getting there. When I was recovering from illness, I know that just even getting down here in the mat was a lot. So and also I'm here to meet you at different stages of your recovery. So wherever you are, let's begin together nurturing the breath with some awareness and just tender loving care. So come to a seated position and start to notice your breath. Or if you wanna start lying down, you can start lying down and everyone just close your eyes. I'm lucky enough to have a sweet assistant here to help with the healing process. Start to notice your breath. If you have a cough, you might come to lay on your side or sit up. If you're congested, you might consider rubbing like some Vicks VapoRub on your chest or your nose. Just start to notice your breath. Take it easy on yourself here. This practice is about nurturing the whole body and therefore your mental health too, your emotional health that wanes a bit. When we are ill. Take another deep breath in here. And this time as you exhale, blow it out through the lips. Almost like you're blowing out a candle. Inhale in again. Just nice and easy blowing it out through the lips. And one more time, just like that, inhale in. Nice, if you're lying on your back, gently, gently, gently press yourself up to seated. And from a seated position, you're gonna bring your left hand to the ground, just like so. And you can keep things kind of almost lazy here today. It doesn't have to be super active. Maybe like other practices. And if you're like, got it boss, no problem. Benji got the note, okay, great. So nice and easy, pressing the left hand to the earth or leaning, you're just gonna open the chest, reach the right arm all the way up at a diagonal. Inhale in. Exhale, side body stretch. So take the right fingertips up and over. Then inhale to that nice, open wingspan again. And then exhale, keep the left palm grounded. You're just gonna wrap your right arm around to kind of hug your left side. So we inhale, expand. Exhale, side body stretch. Inhale, expand. And exhale, drawing it in. Gentle twist in the spine. Hoo, inhale, expand. Exhale, side body stretch. Slow and steady. Inhale, expand, open the chest. And exhale, wrap your wing inward. Let's do one more just like that. And just notice how you feel. You might feel a little emotion here. It can be kind of vulnerable to fall, but it's all a part of the process. And it's an important part of our living process. All right, come all the way back up. And we'll take it to the other side. So again, soft pressing in of the right hand to the earth just to ground you like, hoo, still alive in here. And we'll send the left fingertips out at a diagonal. So if you're further along in the recovery process, you can really pay attention to what's happening in your abs here, in your shoulder blades, your scapula as well. Otherwise, just keep it really soft and easy. Here we go, inhale. Exhale, side body stretch. We lean and reach over with the left fingertips. Inhale, expand, press into the right palm. Exhale, wrap it in. Maybe you kiss your right shoulder. Why not? Inhale, open. Exhale, side body stretch. Inhale, open. And exhale, wrap it in. Inhale, open, nice and slow. Exhale, side body stretch. Inhale, open your wingspan. And exhale, gather, wrap in. Kiss your right shoulder. Why not? One more time on your own, you don't have to kiss your shoulder anymore. Maybe you just need a little smile, a little love. Inhale. And on your last exhale, we'll release. Come back to center. Bring the palms to the knees. So inhale, lift the chest here. Exhale, drop the chest, round everything forward. Think cat-cow here, so the lift is like a cow. And exhale, the chin to chest is rounding the spine like cat. And you can just close your eyes and get lost a little bit here. Lifting and breathing in. Exhaling and softening down, like a soft wave. You know, we always talk about like, it's not about how it looks, it's about how it feels. Now this practice is really just getting to the root of that. So I know what it's like to be so sick. Just allow yourself to be in this state, messy part. Nice, then inhale, lift all the way up. We're gonna come on to our backs now. So I have a blanket out here to lay on. You can lay on a blanket or you can just come straight on the mat, on the ground. We're gonna come all the way to our backs and we're gonna hug the knees into the chest when we get there. Now Benji and I are sharing this mat. And just take a second here to chill with the knees hugging and feel the stretch in the low back if you're like me and I was in bed for weeks. This is heaven, just hugging the knees and feeling that stretch in the low back. If you need a little more, maybe you rock from side to side, getting a little massage. If you want even more discipline, you can train the mind to find neutral spine as your knees go out and then to find a nice flat back as the knees come in. Flush lower back as the knees come in. Neutral spine, tailbone down as the knees go out. So you have a lot of options depending on what you're able to facilitate and focus on. Nice, then slowly release the feet to the ground. You're gonna bring your right ankle to cross your left thigh. And if you are stuffed up here, you could use a block or a pillow or rolled up blanket. Just kind of prop up the head a little bit here for these next moves. I'm gonna keep rolling. Okay, keeping it real. All right, so we're here. And you may not need to prop your head up either. We're gonna thread the needle here, interlace the fingertips behind the back of the left thigh. And in a nice, loving way, we might start to rock side to side. We might squeeze the legs up towards the chest. We might find this is just kind of much too much and we're just gonna be here with the left foot on the ground, pressing the right thigh out. Maybe you have a bit more energy and no sinus pressure, you might flip over and do another version of one-legged pigeon. Wherever you are, soften the skin of the face and breathe. And as you stay in this stretch, continue to find places where you can just bring a little more ease and softness. Shoulders, neck, jaw. Breathing. And slowly release the left foot to the ground. You're gonna keep this right leg crossing over the left. So you're gonna cross it over almost as if you're sitting at a desk. You can rotate the ankle if you want here. You can stay like this or you can even come into eagle legs. You're gonna bump your hips to the right here and then allow your knees to fall to the left. And I have this lovely breathing bolster here that I will use. Way to go, buddy. And then open up through your right shoulder. Maybe turn onto your right ear and breathe. Be like Benji, relaxed in the body, fully in the breath. And then slowly begin to melt it all back to center. Bump the hips back to center. We'll cross the left ankle over the right this time. And just notice how even when we're recovering from an illness, we're wanting to like rush to get to the next thing. That was such a big thing for me. Like I just wanna be better already. So in this hip stretch, can we sit in it? Can we be still? Can we breathe in it? Whatever version. Can we find areas of the body that we can soften and just find a little more ease and soft, easy movements, good too. That feels right in your body. Let your shoulders be heavy and soften the skin of the forehead. And gently release the right foot to the ground. Cross the left leg over the right. You can take the bind if you like or leave it, let it go. Bump the hips to the right this time. Knees, sorry, bump the hips to the left this time. Knees fall to the right. And we open up here through the left shoulder. Maybe turning onto the left ear. Breathe. And honestly, any sounds that need to or want to come out here, I say let them. Allow for that release, that most likely healing release. Very, very gently bring it back to center. Awesome. Realign the hips to the middle of your practice space and send one leg up towards the sky, just one. Lower it down and send the other one. Hands can rest on the belly or the hips. Nice, and just once, we're gonna send both legs up, waterfall here. Or legs up the wall. Breathe. You're here for three. Breathe, you're here for two. And one. Slowly release, bring the soles of the feet together, knees wide. Supta Baddha Konasana. Reclined Cobbler's Pose. Take a deep inhale in. And a long exhale to release. One more cycle of breath here. And then bring your hands to the outer edges of your legs. Just kind of assist the heaviness of the legs in. We'll press up, lift the heels. Just the heels, pressing the toes. And then lower. Just the heels, lift and lower. And one more time, lift and lower. This time, lift all the way up. Press up off the toes. Draw the knees into the chest. We're gonna reach, grab the outer edges of your feet for a little happy baby or modified happy baby. So kick the feet up, soles of the feet towards the sky, tailbone towards the ground. Modification would be to just do one leg at a time or to keep it nice and low. Or you can open the legs to a straddle. Just rolling around here for three cycles of breath. And after your three cycles of breath, you may take the blanket, if you brought one, and cover up with it. We'll share with Benji. And again, keep that head propped up if you need. Come on to your side if you need. We're gonna come into Shavasana here. So close your eyes, allow your hands to rest wherever it feels good. Let your body be heavy. Feel your weight release, melting into the earth. Let everything go. I was gonna say any songs, any sounds that need to come out here, just let them go. Part the lips and rest. Allow your breath to be nice and easy here. Just inhaling lots of love in and lots of love out. Choosing to trust your body and its wisdom. Notice the support that you feel from this practice, from the earth underneath you. And hopefully, from my voice, I really do care and I know what it's like to be recovering from sickness. So just a reminder to give yourself grace. Just do your best. Treat your body kindly. Be patient. Healing is a process. I hope you can stay resting here for as long as you can. Benji and I are gonna sign off and just know that we're always here for you. Continue to drink lots of water. Wherever you are, I send you my love.