Yoga to Regulate Your Nervous System | 15 Minute Practice

Hello everyone, welcome to Yoga With Adriene. I'm Adriene, this is sweet Benji, and I am so happy that this video has found you. Today we're taking some time and space to tend to the nervous system. If you have a blanket, bring it. If you don't, no worries. Hop into something comfy though, and let's get started. Alright my darling friends, let's come into a nice comfortable seat. I'm up on my blanket, lifting the hips a little. If you'd like to join me there, please do. Otherwise, just come to the ground, take your time getting there. Right away I will invite you to sit up as tall as you can, just in this moment, so don't feel like you have to force a tall spine, but just imagine a little bit of length between the vertebra, I love that image. Maybe you can imagine a little string gently lifting you up from the crown. And if none of that imagery is your jam today, that's great too, just give yourself a little space and time, we're taking the time here. I'll invite you to soften your gaze down gently past your nose. Or if you wanna go ahead and shut down the eyelids here as we tune in, that would be wonderful too. So you have lots of options here today. Really inviting that we listen to our body, be like your individual body, my individual body, throughout this practice, and every practice, but really highlighting that today. So just taking a moment to settle in, inviting length in the spine, and maybe softening the gaze or closing the eyes. And as we arrive here in this moment together, just notice what feels better, palms face down on your legs, or palms face up. You can make your choice based on what feels more grounding, what feels, not necessarily most comfortable, but what feels safe. And for me, it's palms face down today. Then as best you can, without changing a thing, just start to notice the quality of your breath. And again, don't change it, try not to. Don't alter it, just notice what it's like, quick or slow, deep or more shallow. And as we bring our attention and awareness to the breath, it will likely change or want to change, but again, best you can, try not to alter the breath here, just residing in the role of the observer, noticing its current rhythm, current flow, current qualities. Begin to notice if the breath feels like it's more in the upper body, the chest, the upper back, as you breathe in, or does it feel like it's more in the lower torso, excuse me, the belly, the lower back. And there's no right or wrong here, simply noticing. And then if you feel pretty darn good just in this moment where your hands currently are, feel free to keep them there. Otherwise, we'll bring the left hand to the heart, the chest, and the right hand right on top of the left hand. And still, just noticing the breath. Sometimes the placement of your hands here on the heart center can gently encourage a slight lift in the heart space. If that comes easy today, enjoy that. If not, it's okay. And just noticing where your natural breath may move your hands, it may not. Relaxing the skin of the face here, just noticing if you're gripping the forehead or the mouth, the jaw. And then sliding the hands now down to the belly, the lower belly, maybe just below the navel. And especially if you've been practicing for a while, it might be hard to resist the urge to just do a big belly breath here. And if that's coming easy, rock on. But let's see with the hands now here in the lower belly if we can just observe, when in our natural breath cycle do we feel the breath in the hands? And of course, as we get super inquisitive here and still, the mind will wander, different thoughts will come up. Just know, let me remind you that's all a part of the exchange. It's all good. And just keep coming back to the seat of the observer. Stay curious. And then release the hands back to the tops of the knees or thighs, palms face up or palms face down. Bat the eyelashes open. And we're actually gonna take our gaze up now. Careful not to crunch in the back of the neck so you don't wanna create any tension in the neck. Just send your gaze up. Almost like we do in lion's breath, up towards the third eye. Then we're gonna take our gaze and our nose and draw a line up and over to the right, past our right shoulder, eyes wide open. Big stretch in the neck. And then all the way back to center. And then same thing to the other side. Eyes up and over, turning to look past the left shoulder. And then all the way back up to center. We're gonna do that two more times, just in your own time. Heart is lifting if you can. Staying nice and tall in the spine. Nice, natural rhythm with your breath. Nothing forced. And then when you're done here, bring the head back to center stillness. We'll tuck the chin into the chest. Take a moment here to pull the elbows back in line with your side body and feel your shoulder blades come together. Inhale, exhale, lift the head. Now we're gonna start to deepen the breath. So bring the hands to the ribcage. Now we're gonna activate some lateral breathing. So for this, you can close your eyes, soft gaze, or keep eyes wide open. We're gonna bring the hands to the waistline here. Imagine the elbows coming back a bit so you can keep this lift in the chest. I often notice when I do this practice with myself, I tend to start to collapse here. My shoulders wanna naturally come forward. So we're gonna resist that urge to collapse in the front body. And here we go. Inhale, breathing into the hands, breathing into the ribcage, feeling that wide expansion as you breathe in. And then exhale, it softens inward as you breathe out. Again, big inhale, breathing downward, feeling that expansion. And exhale, it softens in. I love the image of an umbrella here. Inhale, the umbrella opens. And exhale, it softens and closes in. Let's do one more. Nice, beautiful. Release the hands, left hand comes to the earth. Right fingertips reach up and over. Ground down through your right hip. Hug those lower ribs in, breathe in. Nice side body stretch here. Super soft and easy here. So not pushing or forcing. And then sweep it all the way through center and take it to the other side. And then slowly release, come back to center. Palms come together, Anjuli Mudra. Take a deep breath in here and a long breath out. And then slowly, we'll bring our blanket, if you brought one, if not, no biggie. So if you didn't bring one, just come to lie flat on your back. If you did bring one, we'll roll it lengthwise like so. And then lay the spine down on it here. Now, if you're in a place with your nervous system where this is feeling unwell, not good, then let's come back to a comfortable seat or Extended Child's Pose. You have options. And then for those laying down on the blanket or on the earth, you can extend the legs out long. You can bring the soles of the feet together, Baddha Konasana. Or last option would be to bring, or you have lots of options, but last option I'll offer you is to bring the feet as wide as the mat and then allow the knees to come together, softening through the bowl of the pelvis. So find what feels good in your body here today. And this is our last shape. And again, looking to see if the palms face up or palms face down feels best. We'll take one big collective inhale in here. Big, smooth, subtle breath. And then exhale again, smooth, soft. And when I say subtle, meaning we're tapping into those subtle body sensations, not pushing or forcing, really listening. And then just allowing yourself to relax here. Allowing the earth or the bolster to hold you. You can stay here as long as you like. Maybe you take a moment after this session to sit in meditation, to journal, or perhaps move into more yin practice or yoga nidra. But if this is it for today, let's all be sure to just say thank you. Thank you to ourselves for taking the time and the space. I am certainly grateful that you share your time and energy with me. If you like, we can bring the thumbs to the third eye here. And then we'll close this session with one last big inhale in and then exhale out. Repeat this session, keep coming back to it whenever you need it. Benji and I will be here for you. Thanks again, take good care.