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hello everyone, and welcome to yoga with adriene.i am adriene, and today we have a special, by-request sequence: yoga when you're feelingunder the weather, when you're feeling a little sick. this is a short sequence of posturesthat will support you when you have a cold, or perhaps your immune system is feeling alittle low. as you may know, or as you may not know andyou will soon learn, it's so important to nurture the body when you're feeling ill,to give yourself permission to stop and slow down, uncrumple the body and nurture it, sothat you can get better all the more faster and find what feels good. so put on somethingcomfy and grab a blanket or a pillow, and let's hop on the mats.
alright, so to begin today we're going tocome to a nice cross-legged position. i'm sitting up on a block here, but you can rollup a blanket, or you can just sit flat on the earth. we raise the hips a little bitto just allow the legs to fall down, find more space in the hips, and there's no rightor wrong here. we can draw the heels in, we can leave them out. just come to a nice comfortableseat, where you feel that you can roll up through the spine and perhaps align the headover the heart, and the heart over the pelvis. so, if you've really got the gunk, have acouple tissues by your side, maybe a glass of water or some hot tea now, or to followthis video. i'm just going to move nice and slow. the name of the game today is 'yummy,'so we'll begin to loop the shoulders forward,
up, and back. maybe close your eyes. you knowwhat to do here. so we're looping the shoulders. you can trust yourself for a moment. closingyour eyes, looking away from the video, and looping the shoulders forward, up, and back.and while we do this, we're just going to check in with the breath, inhaling in throughthe nose, and exhaling through the nose or the mouth. so if the nose is a little bitstopped-up, no worries. don't give up, don't say 'i can't, because you can. we're hereto just kind of check in with the body, and give it a little love. okay, a couple moreloops of the shoulders here, a couple more deeps breaths. awesome. then we'll turn the palms face-up on the legs,and find this openness, this lift in the chest
and the heart. so it's not a forced thing,'oh, hatha yoga!' no, it's actually quite natural. just this lift, and my theory asthat we just take a couple moments to be here with the breath. you can close your eyes andjust listen. my theory is that we actually can heal ourself and boost our immunity alot faster and more successfully when we just take a moment to be with the breath, to bein the moment. so that means we're not fighting being sick, we're not just going to the darkside when we're sick. we're just kind of listening. and i know i'm veering off a little into hippie-dippyland here but we're just listening to the body and not going to the dark side. so ifyou're feeling bad, continuing to say "i"m sick, i feel awful, ugh," you know, it's justnot helpful. instead we can take a more nurturing
approach, which is where i'm going here. so, we're going to nurture the body todayby drawing the palms together at the heart, interlacing the fingertips. and you can openyour eyes here as we press the palms forward, up, and back. take a deep breath in. we'rejust kind of uncrumpling the body. so if you've been sick for a while, or you're just startingto feel the immune system go down, chances are the body has started to go into this kindof protective mode. and that's human, that's our parasympathetic nervous system. no biggie,and we're going to take a second to counteract that. so we're here, and we're just moving a littleback and forth. that's it. nothing fancy.
the elbows can be bent generously if the shouldersare tight, or we can press up through the thumbs. we're breathing in here, again justcoming up and out of that crumply state. and then we'll come back to center stillness.again head over heart, heart over pelvis. we'll inhale. lift the chin all the way up,and on an exhale chin to chest, as we float the fingertips down and away. great. chinto chest here as we interlace the fingertips behind the back. now loop the shoulders, drawthe knuckles away from the crown of the head, and slowly we'll begin to lift the chin backup toward the heavens. three to five breaths here. so perhaps there's a little tightness in thechest. i'm going to turn to the side just
so you can see. perhaps there's a little tightnessin the chest. we use the inhale to expand through the lungs and we use the exhale tomaybe draw the shoulder blades in together and down. notice i'm moving a little organicallyin the neck, finding what feels good. now as we tend to our immune systems but trulyalways, right? great. take one more breath here, and then exhale with control, with gracerelease the fingertips. and we're going to gently come to all fours. so i'm going to move the pillow, blanket,or block out of the way and come to all fours. just a little cat cow here. so there's alwaysmore to be discovered here, in my humble opinion. palms spread wide, wrists underneath the shoulders,knees directly underneath the hips. move nice
and slow today. it's a sick day. let's giveourselves some love. inhale. heart opens, chest opens. we press away from the earth.and exhale, curl the tailbone under. find a little organic movement here as you mayberock a little side to side. and then again we inhale, looping forward. and exhale, pressingaway from the earth. we draw the navel up, chin to chest. one more time. inhale. longpuppy belly here, and long neck. exhale, pressing away form the earth, chin to chest. great. then we're going to curl the toes under.walk the fingertips back. a little yoga for the feet bonus here. as we draw circles withthe nose, keep breathing. so we're breathing into the soles of the feet. if this is toomuch for you, if you're like "i am sick, girl!
i'd said i didn't want to work hard today,"then just come up onto the tops of the feet and work the neck here. so either on topsof the feet, or we're sitting back. reverse your circle if you haven't already. if youfind any crunchiness you can work in and out of it. and then we'll come back to centerstillness. spread the palms, dive forward to all fours. then this isn't a fancy yogatransition here, my friends. take it nice and slow. you're just going to take one footup, then the other, and come to a nice, bent-legged forward fold. now this might seem counter-intuitiveif you're really stopped up, so if you are really stopped up, go gently. you can keepthe elbows on the tops of the thighs there, maybe wrap the fingertips around the elbowshere. and just play with dropping the chin
to the chest, and then lifting back up. chinto chest. and lifting back up. another variation to try -- you can see myhair doing weird things here, enjoy -- another variation to try, if we feel that it wouldbe relieving, would be to come all the way down, grabbing the elbows, coming all theway into uttanasana, the forward fold, and giving it a gentle rock. breathing deep inthrough the nose, and out through the nose, or mouth if the nose is stopped up. couplerocks here. so i'm either rocking here, or i'm rocking here. do two more breaths, whereveryou are. great, then release the palms back to theearth, spread the palms wide, and come back to all fours. cool. we're going to bring thetwo big toes together, widen the knees as
wide as the mat, and send it back, extendedchild's pose. so, a couple of options here. we can massage the forehead right here, rockinga little back and forth. if you have a head cold, or you have a lotof congestion in the head, this can seem really simple but can be quite yummy, to just rocka little back and forth on the mat. i have been known, no joke, to take a little smearof eucalyptus or peppermint, put it on the mat here, and just rock back and forth, breathingin the aromatherapy. so that might be a good option. hell, there's like vick's on thisthing, so i could even take my fancy vick's kleenex, roll around here. improvising skillsare one of the best things you can do in yoga. so you have a couple options there.
breathe into the back body, rock a littleback and forth. and then slowly we'll walk the palms up and grab either a blanket, apillow, or a block. i have a pillow here, cause i'm pretty sure more people have a pillowon their bed. so i'll set my pillow up here. breathe into the legs, breathe into the backbody, as i dive in for a nice, yummy, restorative extended child's pose. come onto one ear hereand breathe. after a couple breaths, we'll come on throughand take it to the opposite ear. nice, long, smooth deep breaths. so i'm still gettingmy stretch, my hip stretch, still kind of lengthening through the side body. breathinginto the back body. but in a norm -- in a more -- excuse me, i'm getting too relaxed-- in a more nurturing fashion. then i'll
slowly roll it back up and take that pillowand put it to the side, because we're going to use it in just one more second. so, we're all different. we're all watchingthis video at different states of cold or allergies or just a little bit, you know,'immune system down.' so you can stay in that supported extended child's pose for the nextthing, or we can slowly transition in to a downward dog. we're just going to do one.so some people are maybe a little more active, they need a downward dog or two when they'refeeling down. some need to just simply take care, right? so you can stay in that extendedchild's pose for this next posture, or we'll more our sit bones up toward the sky, curlthe toes under, and come into a mobile downward
dog. so i encourage you to move. the chances arethe body's a little stiff. we've been under the weather, we've been maybe in bed or takingit easy a little bit longer, and as you should. so, work it out. find places to stretch, findplaces to lift and lengthen. spread the palms wide, and for heaven's sakes my friends, breathedeep. again, we might skip this. we might have too much pressure in the head, or wemight not have the energy that we really require for this posture, so you might be in extendedchild's pose. but if you are in downward dog, take two more breaths. awesome. then we'll slowly lower to all fours, andif you're in extended child's pose here together
we'll rock up, move the pillow to the side,and slowly come to seated. great. beautiful everyone. take the legs nice and wide. great.so, this doesn't have to be a gymnastic thing. this can be a nice, narrow thing. it doesn'thave to be a big wide stance, so just test out the waters, find what feels good. andthen we have a couple options here. we can walk the palms forward, so we're getting anice little leg stretch, but still keeping it nice and chill, right? we want to takecare of the body, and just provide the body with some nurturing empowerment, rather thanpower yoga. so notice i'm rocking a little side to side here, nothing fancy. i have alittle bit of brightness in my feet, but again i'm not pressing, trying to lift my heels.we're giving ourselves permission to move
nice and slow today, rocking back and forth,perhaps keeping the sit bones on the ground. and then after i've gone a little bit side-to-side,swaying like a goofball, then i'll come up onto my fingertips and crawl my fingertipsforward, so it's going to be a little different for everyone. maybe i come all the way forward,maybe i"m like "woah, nellie!" here. so, find where it feels best for you today, and breathein towards the legs. and if you're one of those smart people that's like "what doesbreathe in towards the legs mean?" it just means nice deep breaths and an awareness towardsthe legs, integrating breath and body. then the final thing here is that we'll usea prop to support, so we can stay there for five or even ten breaths if you want to dothis on your own. so we can take a block to
the forehead, which feels great if you havea lot of congestion here. and again, sometimes swiping a little bit of oil there is lovely.or you can take a vick's kleenex. it's nice. you can do that here. so i have a little bitof support, relaxing the shoulders down. i can rock a little, massaging. i can stay hereif i'm at peace. if i don't have a block and i'm like "i want something," then by all meansmy friend you deserve something. we'll take a pillow or more blankets, anything, couchpillows. put them in front and chill here. so i'm getting the stretch -- that was anessential 'ah' -- i'm getting the stretch that i need. again, this can be a little morenarrow, and the knees can bend. so find a supported forward fold here, smile. enjoythis moment.
often we just chow down our vitamins and takethe medicine we're told to take, o.d. on the elixirs, and sometimes it's just nice to bewith your body and your breath, thinking about yoga practice as a medicine for living. takeone more breath here. this blanket totally smells like the horse -- a horse. in a goodway, though. and when you feel satisfied, roll it up myfriends. move your comfy stuff to the side and bring the soles of the feet together.interlace the fingertips around the toes. maybe you walk the sit bones closer to theheels, maybe not. and we breathe, as we inhale in, checking in with the neck. and then whenyou feel satisfied, you might forward fold here, chin to chest, or you might stay up.so we have two options in this final posture.
to release, press into the outer edges ofthe feet, untangle the fingertips, lift your heart, and we're just going to windshield-wiperthe legs. this is something you can do while you're watching t.v., while the soup's onthe stove or the tea kettle is boiling. just rocking the hips back and forth, knees leftto right. and then maybe crossing the legs and finishing with either a chant, if youchant, or just deep breath in and out. just a mindful moment of connectivity. when i'msick, i say this affirmation: "my immune system works perfectly." so after this video is over,you can pause, sit in this posture for a minute or two, and just repeat to yourself "my immunesystem works perfectly."