- Howdy pal, and
welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and
today we have a meditation for you to help
you with anxiety. Happens to the best of us. It can get out of control fast. So, thank you for
joining me in this meditation to help quell and
soften and maybe even cure you from
regular anxiety attacks. Hope into something
comfy and let's get started. (gentle music) Alright, my sweet friends,
so we're going to begin by finding a comfortable seat and what was a
comfortable seat yesterday or where you may
end up years from now in your meditation
practice or just in your body is just always right in
a constant state of flux for so many reasons. So, I'd like to invite
you today to really consider what's gonna feel best. If it's leaning
up against a wall, snuggle up against a wall. If it's sitting on
the edge of your couch or participating
in a chair, fabulous. Or you can lie down,
you can practice this meditation lying down. So, we definitely
wanna come to a place where we feel
comfortable and safe to do this brief meditation
and to practice the breath, the pranayama, and so today,
just an extra gentle nudge to find a comfortable seat and
really be honest about that. So, if it's not Sukhasana today, find something that
feels supportive and good. For those coming into Sukhasana, you can even play with the
legs here, one foot in front of the other, maybe give
yourself a nice wide base. So, we'll all
come into a position that we feel is the
most supportive of us today. Again, it can be lying down. And when you arrive
there, really choose to arrive by acknowledging, oh
I chose to turn on this video, I made the choice to
tend to what's going on, and the first position that I'm even taking here was also a choice to feel
supported and comfortable. So, basically we're
shifting gears a little bit from a mindset that might feel a
little bit anxious or off, and we're starting to get
organized in the brain and body and say, okay,
wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, I have some power here, a lotta power to help guide myself out of that which doesn't feel good and to help guide myself to a place that feels more supported. So, hopefully by now, you
found your seat for today, whatever it may be, your place where
you are going to reside, and when you
arrive there, you can use the sound of my
voice now as a guide, so close your eyes and
just bring some awareness to your chest, your heart space, and depending on where you're
at today, my sweet friend, you might
already start to lean in and just feel what's comin' up, let the emotional body have a seat at the
table and just notice. And wherever you are today, see if you can begin
to do just that, notice. Come into the
role of the observer. So, I find it very
helpful to close the eyes, relax the shoulders,
and bring your awareness to your heart
center or your chest area and just allow
whatever feelings come up, whatever thoughts,
just notice them. And then notice
where you might be holding or gripping in the body,
the fingers or the toes, the ankles or the wrists,
and see if you can use this idea of the
observer to just notice all of those points and then in time to allow just the noticing to
bring a softness, an awareness. So, your only real job
here in this practice today is to pay attention. We use Pranayama
technique to help guide the energy of the body and to hopefully help
relieve you from feelings that are not serving, if you feel stuck or off
or anxious, stressed out. Hopefully, the
Pranayama will allow us to just shift our perspective
or break the pattern that we might be stuck in. So, after you've taken a couple
moments to just arrive here and settle in, acknowledge that you chose this, start to notice your breath. You don't have to do
anything, just acknowledge it, notice the natural ebb and flow. Notice what it feels
like as you breathe in and notice what it feels like
as you empty the breath out. And then again,
bring your awareness to your chest again,
your heart space, this place that tends to get
really tight and collapsed when we feel anxiety, and see if you can start to lift up through
that area, even if it's not a big muscular movement
but just a little energy. Then allow that to
affect your breath, maybe taking a
more fuller inhale, feeling the heart lift a little, then perhaps
feeling the shoulders relax and soften as you breathe out. So, the neck and shoulders
also get a lot of tension, a little tightness
when we feel anxious, so use your
inhale to feel expansion, and as you start
to deepen the breath, use your exhale to find
a softness, a surrender. Alright, you're doing great. Stay with it, stick
with it, eyes closed, shoulders relaxed, lots of awareness around your heart center,
your chest, your sternum. On your next inhale,
see if you can bring the tip of your tongue to
the roof of your mouth now, just right behind the
teeth, and breathe in, and then breathe out,
jaw nice and soft. Again, the tip of the tongue
comes to the roof of the mouth and we breathe in. The jaw stays soft, not
clinched, as you breathe out. And on your next inhale,
we're gonna count to four. Breathe in for four. Here we go. Tongue comes to
the roof of the mouth. And we inhale, one, two, three, four, and then just let
it go soft and easy. Inhale for four, one, two, three, four, and then let it go. Notice how you feel,
stay present, keep observing. Adding onto this ratio, now
we're going to hold the breath, retain the breath in
between the inhalation and the exhalations
for a seven count. So, we'll do one
breath cycle, just in and out, and then we'll
start with the four. So, breathe in deep
here, nice, soft, easy breath. And exhale just to
relax the shoulders, empty everything out. I'm breathing in for four. Inhale, one, two, three, four, holding, retaining the breath for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one,
and let everything go. Notice what thoughts come up,
stay present, let it unfold. Try to keep the body still. And the last bit of the
ratio is an exhale for eight. So, we'll inhale for four,
I'll guide you with my voice. We'll hold at the top,
retaining the breath mindfully for seven and then a nice
smooth exhalation on the eight. Four, seven, eight. Soften through your
fingertips and toes. One breath cycle, in and out
to start, and then we'll begin. Here we go, inhale. Empty it all out. And inhaling for four,
inhale, one, two, three, four. Holding for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Just notice how you did,
no judgment, just observing. Inhaling for four,
inhale, one, two, three, four. Retaining on
seven, six, five, four, three, you got this, two, one. And big exhale,
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Inhale for four,
three, two, one. Retain for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Inhale for four,
three, two, one. Retain, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Exhale for
eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Let everything go. Stay with it. Notice what comes up. Reside in that
wonderful role of the observer. And wherever you are, whether
you're seated in a chair or Sukhasana or lying down, you're gonna find soft,
easy movement with the neck. So, if you're lying down, you might rock the
head gently side to side. You might shake the
head yes and then no. And then you'll start
to bat the eyelashes open. Soft, easy movement
with the neck and shoulders. And then we'll
take a big inhale in and exhale, sigh it out,
so this is important, little big of sound here. Inhale in. Sigh it out. (sighs) And one more time, inhale. (deeply sighs) Hands come together,
notice how you feel. Thank you for sharing your time and your energy and
your practice with me and all the people
around the globe participating, working towards a
happy, healthy balanced life. Namaste. (gentle music)
