I am Adriene and this is Benji and today we have an awesome

at home yoga practice that's gonna help you learn

the foundations of shoulder stand.

So hop into something comfy, grab two blankets or two even

towels if you have them and let's get started.

(gentle music)

Okay, welcome everyone.

Thank you so much for being here.

We're gonna begin seated on your two blankets

or your two towels today.

If you don't have them and you still want to experience this

practice, it's okay but just be really mindful.

If you do have them, let's go ahead an put 'em to use by

sitting up on them now.

Just getting the hips higher than the knees and right away

taking this time for you.

You're amazing for taking this time.

That's really the hardest part, truly.

So start to enjoy yourself.

Start to bring a little awareness to the body

as you sit up nice and tall.

And then start to relax the shoulders as you just start to

settle in and we're gonna ease in.

So even though we have a focus today of breaking down the

foundations of a beginner's shoulder stand we're gonna

create a little practice so that you can feel really good when

you get off the mat because time is valuable and you deserve it.

We're gonna start with a little warm up together and then I'll

break down the pose with the demonstration that you can watch

and then we'll take some time to practice it together.

And the reason for this is we want to be just super mindful

and aware of the neck as we learn and practice shoulder

stand so you don't want to be looking at the video while

you're in the posture.

Same with Bridge Pose which we're also gonna do.

But for now, let's unite, connect,

me and you and all of the beautiful people around the

world taking time to practice in this very moment.

As you're ready, once you're in your nice comfortable seat,

take a nice deep breath in through your nostrils

and then exhale out through the mouth.

And again, inhale in through the nose

and as you exhale through the mouth,

this time really, really relax your shoulders

down, down, down.

And maybe for this last one you close your eyes.

Here we go, big deep breath in.

Oh yeah, exhale, relax the shoulders.

Be open to just dropping into this moment.

Again, hardest part is done.

You're here.

Let's have some fun.

Nice and slow, dropping the chin to the chest.

Nice and slow,

lifting nose to the sky.

Careful not to crunch the back of the neck.

Nice and slow, chin to chest.

And nice and slow carving a line with the nose all the way up.

So continue this loving gesture.

And I say loving because once you reach this highest point

looking up, you don't want to take it so far back

that you're out of control.

So nice and mindful.

And whether you're brand new to yoga practice or you've been

practicing for a long time you just want to

work on your shoulder stand,

or you're a part of the KULA and you do the free video every

Sunday as it comes out live, which is something we've all

been doing, then welcome.

But essentially whatever brought you here see if you can use this

moment to think of integrating the neck

with gestures like this.

So rather than just nodding the head up and down,

what would it look like, feel like to consider this that I'm

actually integrating my neck into every posture?

Whether it's a sweaty 90 minute vinyasa or a foundations of yoga

practice at home with me.

Always integrating the neck.

Alright, and then when you're ready we'll bring the head back

to center, right over the heart and nice and easy you're gonna

drop one ear over one shoulder and then come through center

and over to the other side. Very simple.

And same thing here.

Rather than just going through the motions,

getting warmed up through the neck,

stretching out, see if you can right away peel back another

layer of the onion and think of this gesture as a way,

a warm-up, a focus of integration,

integrating the neck

into the entire shape.

And if you're like,

"I don't really understand what this lady's talking about."

Then you can enjoy the stretch.

You can enjoy this time for yourself and maybe another

moment in your journey you'll

hear that and maybe not.

Integrating the neck.

Something we're really going to be talking about

in the next 30 Days of Yoga.

If you're watching this is in real time

which will be in January.

Oh my gosh, I almost said the name.

Okay, bring it back to center.

Hands are gonna come to the heart, Anjuli Mudra.

Take the deepest breath you've taken all day.

In through the nose.

And this time out through the nose.

Inhale, sit up a little taller.

Exhale, out through the nose.

And one more, you got it, big breath.

Exhale.

Awesome, you're gonna interlace the fingertips now.

Take them behind the head.

Elbows wide.

So we're stretching through the shoulder girdle,

girdle, here.

Use your breath here to start to feel

expansion through the chest.

Something we're really gonna need in that shoulder stand even

when we take our legs over the head,

over the torso.

So the action points here are opening elbows wide.

Lifting sternum up.

Drawing the shoulder blades together and then allowing them

to melt down, down, down even if it's just an awareness.

And then use your breath here to breathe into

all four sides of the torso.

And you're not gonna catch that big,

beautiful, buoyant yogi breath on the first try so just

remember it's a practice, it's a journey.

And if you have tight shoulders it might help

to extend the thumbs here.

Just give yourself a little support.

A little more space.

And you're gonna want to maybe give up,

particularly if you're a little tired so think about lengthening

from your hip creases to your armpit chest

and think about the weight of the legs grounding down

as you lift up through your heart.

So make it active, basically.

(clicks tongue)

Yogi secret.

And then the great thing about after making it active,

drawing the navel in and up is finding the softness, right?

That Sukha, that ease.

If you haven't already, give it one more go trying to find that

big full body breath, filling the lungs with air.

Sweet and then release, let's rain it down side to side and

then just one time to each side.

(chuckles) Benji's very Zenned out today.

Inhale to reach up and over, big side body stretch.

Aw.

And then bring it back to center.

And other side, up first and then over.

Creating length.

Awesome.

And you're gonna come back to center,

take one more cycle of breath.

Inhale lots of love in.

Exhale, use it to relax the shoulders down.

Great, okay so from here we're gonna come on to the back for a

little Bridge Pose warm-up.

You can use the blankets if you want.

I'm gonna push mine to the side and just save them.

If you have never done a Bridge Pose you can watch this one

first and then pick up on the second and third.

If you know Setu Bandhasana well we can do all three together.

(snaps) Okay.

Oh, also I was not gonna say this but I am nursing a little

soreness in my low back so if you see me moving a little

funny, that's why but I still wanted to do

this pose for you today.

It's a big request and so that's that.

I'm human.

And it's a good thing to kind of just tend to it instead of try

and fake it and you know do that thing.

That's not gonna work for me anymore.

Gotta be mindful, gotta honor what is.

Okay, but this is gonna feel good.

So here we go.

We're gonna walk the, you're gonna come on to your back.

You're gonna walk the heels up in line with your sits bones

and you're gonna reach your fingertips

down towards your heels.

Right away I'm gonna snuggle my shoulder blades

into my heart space.

In and underneath my figurative heart space.

You can think about drawing your shoulder blades

together to touch, to kiss.

Then a little bit of a tendency here is to get up into the pose

before we've set up the foundation.

So if the feet are too wide or a lot of times I'll just see

them a little bit too close, you're gonna want to think about

bringing them in alignment with your hip points.

So not the outer hips but your hip points.

And the truth is the more that I

lead yoga and experience that exchange,

the less exact I think it is.

I think every body is different

so you're gonna use these as guidelines

but also it is important to learn the alignment

and the action so that you can stay safe,

especially with at home yoga.

So hip points are in line with the knees or rather knees are in

line with the hip points.

Ankles are in line with the knees.

Alright, so not here, not here.

You'll walk 'em in.

So I'm on two parallel lines.

I know it seems like I'm obsessing but for beginners it's

like you can't really see down there so have to just keep

saying careful not to go too wide,

careful not to go too narrow.

Okay.

Then fingertips are gonna actively press into the earth.

And we're gonna press into all four corners of the feet firmly.

Right away you're connected before you

even lift any weight up.

Shoulder blades continue to draw together so you feel

that active opening the chest.

So you're already active before you even lift up.

Then we'll take a deep breath in.

Filling the lungs.

Big chest expansion here.

And then on the exhale you'll use it to re-anchor your

foundation and begin to slowly lift the hip points,

the hip creases up.

Then as you come about halfway you're gonna pause re-assess,

re-connect and maybe draw the shoulder blades together

a little bit more and then we'll continue the journey,

this time really thinking of sending the shins forward.

Shins forward.

Now knees are gonna want to come in here.

Imagine you're holding or squeezing an imaginary block

between the thighs.

You're holding on to your foundation

and you're breathing deep.

Great, then chest is gonna lift to chin.

I might find more space here and then chin to sky.

If I want, I can interlace the fingertips behind

my back for a bind.