Find Your Focus with Dristi Yoga

This yoga session will help you to hone your focus- or drishti as it is called in sanskrit. Our yoga asanas will give us an awareness of the neck, shoulders, and chest as we tune the focus gaze. Keep your eye on the prize!

Transcript

Welcome today we'll be doing a little bit with our focus in yoga we call that drishti that is the Sanskrit word for focus is drishti And we want to feel like we have a good purpose, A good focus. The beginning of a day perhaps for you or the beginning of our month There's always something that's starting and so to begin with a clear focus in mind and really keep you pinpointed and having a purpose. To your day, To your month, Whatever it is. So let's start in a chest opening pose to open up the front of our body. You're going to take your two blocks so the first block put it on the long edge. And the second block Put it on the lowest edge, About a foot apart. Going to be a little ski slope. And then turn to sit with your feet together, Knees open to the side, So Baddha Konasana. And we'll lay back so that the first block hits right across the rib cage and the second block i need to move mine a little is at the back of your head. So there's this supported sensation in the chest. And support it in your head so it shouldn't strain your neck at all. Then our feet again together, Knees open to the side, A little bit of hip opening here. And we'll just let our hands drop off to the side. Open up the shoulders and the chest. Close your eyes for a moment. And think of your drishti. Maybe it's a goal that you have for just this day. And just this yoga practice. It can be that specific. Or maybe it's a goal that you've been focusing on or that you want to. Set off your new week or new month with. Something that. . . That gives you a purpose. And we'll let this drishti. Float in our mind and in our body. If you ever ride a bike you know that looking where you're going Your body will follow So if we look off to the left, Our bike wheels to the left. If we look off to the right, Our bike wheels to the right. So just. . . With that principle in mind, We want our eyes, Our focus to be really intentional today. Keep breathing. A few more deep Ujjayi breaths in and out through the nose. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. And let's gently press up. We'll come back to our blocks in a moment. So set them off. And let's move to all fours. And then press up onto your toes. Push back to Adamukasvanasana. Here's our first place that we can focus on Drishti. If we look at the ground, It strains our neck, Strains our shoulders. So we want to tip our chin towards our chest and feel that link through the back of the neck. Spread your fingers wide press your heels down toward the mat they don't have to touch they're just headed in that direction And this is our first one as we move through our vinyasa flow. The yoga pose will change. The body will change and we'll start to really feel connected to our Drishti, Your goal for this day. Bend your knees and walk your way up to your hands. Again we're looking at the floor but now let's turn our gaze behind our legs and really relax the neck there Keep your head and neck heavy as you roll up through your spine. Shoulders stay heavy. To bring our body up to the top, We roll the shoulders back. We're ready to begin Sura Namaskara A. Inhale, Reach your arms up. You can follow your hands with your gaze. Exhale fold down and again we're following the body following the hands all the way down go as deep as you can your hands don't have to be on the ground just reach as far as you can Inhale look up halfway lift pull your shoulder blades back so that you're lengthening your neck exhale hands down to the mat step back you can bend your knees here drop down to the knees or keep them lifted chaturanga elbows bend see if you can hover just for a moment inhale press your chest forward and through opening up the front of the throat Exhale, Roll back. To down dog, Atamukha Svanasana. Relax that neck. I even like to sometimes sway my head around. You'll notice there'll be a lot of neck tension here as we Shift our chin, Shift our gaze. Bend your knees. Look forward. Step or hop up to the hands. And for a variation here, We're going to cross our right foot in front of our left. This may be hard for you to touch the floor, So feel free to grab a block. Hold on to the block. Place it in position. To feel that deepening in the backs of the legs. You might feel a little extra sensation through the IT bands and our head is just nice and heavy down here. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Let's unwind our feet. Set that block aside. Inhale, Reverse swan diver. Reach up to the sky. Exhale, Samasthiti. Very nice. Let's take that again. So we'll really feel the connection of our breath with our movement. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Swan dive forward, Reach it down as far as you can go. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands down. Step or hop back to a plank. Feel free to drop to your knees. Chaturanga. Inhale, Uravamukha Svanasana, Upward facing dog. Exhale, Atamukhasvanasana. Downward facing dot. Tuck the chin, Gaze back between your legs. You're focused. Such so that you relax the neck. Bend your knees, Look forward. Inhale, Step or hop up to the hands. Again, Our modification, Let's take our left foot in front of our right now. And if it's easy for you to have hands on the floor, Fine. If not. Utilize your block. Let yourself fold down. And relax Jaw, Shoulders. Feel those IT bands. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Release the feet. Put them back to Uttanasana. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach out. Exhale, Samasthiti. Good. One more, Then we're going to move on with our vinyasa flow. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Swan dive down. Inhale, Look up halfway left. Exhale, Hands down, Step or hop back, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Atomakasvanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Very nice. Now lift the right leg. Inhale, Up and back behind you. Three-legged down dog. Exhale, Bring it through in between your hands. Roll the left heel down so you have heel to arch aligned. Windmill your arms around to Virabandrasana A. Or B. Sorry. Vira Vendrasana B. In this pose, We look over that right hand. This is strong. Our gaze is strong, Focusing, Keeping your eye on the prize. Inhale straighten up the right leg exhale take it to trichonasana Reach your hand down anywhere along the leg or if you're using your block, You can place it in front of your foot on the big toe side. Then we reach that left arm up to the sky. Open chest. It feels great to look up. It's like looking into your future, Looking into your possibility. But if you have neck strain, Don't be afraid to look down. That's okay too. Take a breath, Inhale. Exhale bend your right leg put your right hand forward. Maybe you have your hand on your block still and we'll lift off to half moon Ardachandrasana. Now looking down is probably the easiest, Probably the most stable. Play around with your drishti here. Maybe you're going to send your gaze up. Maybe you're even going to close your eyes. See if that gives you a little added challenge. Inhale. Exhale bend your right knee put your left foot down raise back up to virabandrasana b nice and stable inhale Exhale deepen right forearm to the thigh or the right hand to the floor You can use your block on the pinky toe side Pull your left arm overhead. I like to gaze at my palm. Lines the neck really nicely with the rest of the spine but again if that's hard on your neck just look down Looking down is always easiest. Inhale lift up straighten through your torso turn your toes toward each other place your hands on your hips Look up, Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward. Take your hands down to the floor or Maybe onto your block. Walk your hands back between your feet. Press into the ground, Inhale, Look up. We're in Prasarita Padottanasana A. Exhale, Fold yourself down and take your gaze between your legs. Again, Lengthening the back of the neck. Feel your weight in your toes. Shift forward just a little bit. That will stretch out the backs of your hamstrings, The hips really nicely. You can feel this good link. Through the legs. Inhale press into the floor look up Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale lift up the rest of the way good job hands on our waist let's rotate our feet we're going back to the right foot forward again but this time our hips come to so our hips are square pointing straight forward bend your right knee inhale lift up virabhendrasana a like to look up just make sure that you're pulling your shoulder blades back so they're not squeezing up into your neck draw them down your back Then to create lots of space for the neck, Let's take our hands behind our back. We can either come to fist. Grab your forearms or reverse prayer. Look up, Inhale. Straighten through that right leg Exhale fold forward. And take your gaze not just to the floor, But all the way back. Toward that left leg back there. The straighter the right knee, The better. You're going to feel that link through the hip flex, Through the hamstring. This is Parsva Uttanasana. Lengthen our torso a little bit more with a variation. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale bring your hands down along your leg you can't grab the floor Just along the leg somewhere or perhaps you've got your block You can place your hands on your block there. Good. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Bend your right leg. Drop down that left knee and let's readjust this right leg into a pigeon pose so we're going to turn it parallel to the top of our mat here and walk back the left leg as straight as we can now you may not be able to sit down on your right hip all the way so take a block put it underneath your right hip for a little bit of support there Another place where the block might be helpful is in front. You can deepen, Put your forearms on it. Or even just laying down. And putting your forehead on the block of course you can do this without a block you can lay all the way down. So let your breath relax here. The breath is still strong, But I should say, Let your breath relax your body here. Time to look inside. We're holding still. We're not moving. Look inside. Find that focus. Find that drishti. Make sure everything is in line. Don't let your focus slip. Even for a moment. Take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, Lift up onto your hands. Roll onto that back left toe. And let's step our right foot back. To Atamukasvanasana. Reset all of that to begin on our left side. So lift your left leg up and back behind you. Inhale. Exhale, Bring it through in between the hands. Roll that right heel to the floor. Windmill your arms to Virabandrasana B. I'm going to turn around so that I'm facing you. You should still have your left foot as your bent leg. Extend your gaze strongly. Strong focus. Strong drishti. Over that left hand. Very nice. Now straighten up through your left leg. Inhale. Exhale trikonasana feel free to grab your block it goes on the big toe side or you can reach down for your leg more gentle to gaze at the ground a little more stimulating to look up Find what works for you today, Just for this moment, Just in this pose. Inhale. Exhale, Look down. Bend your left leg. Take your left hand forward. Perhaps you're using your block or maybe your hand is on the floor. Lift up to half moon. Ardha Chandrasana. And what are you doing? What are you doing except for falling over like me, Perhaps? What are you doing about your game? Is it staying on the ground? Are you looking up? Are you closing your eyes? I lost my focus for a minute as I tried to talk to you, Didn't I? Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your left leg, Put the right foot down, Lift up. Virabandrasana B, And then deepen into your hip. Left forearm to your thigh or the hand to the floor. This time on the pinky toe side. You can use your block. Pull the right arm overhead. Draw that shoulder back. Maybe turn your gaze to your hands. To the palm. Feel the hips. Feel that reach. Through the entire torso. Great job. Inhale lift up good job exhale turn your toes toward each other i'm a little wide i'm going to scoot in just a tiny bit Clasp your hands behind you. If this is really tight for your shoulders, You can use your straps. Behind your back, It will widen out your space there and you might be able to get a little more depth. So clasp or grab the strap, Look up, Inhale, Shoulders roll back as we look to the sky. Exhale, Take your gaze down and way back. As you let your hands fall away from your back. So you're looking behind your legs, Shifting your weight toward your toes. Feeling that stretch across the upper back and our neck. So nice and loose. Deep, Deep breath. Inhale lift all the way up feels so nice i could stay there forever exhale release your hands bring them to your waist turn your body and turn your hips Feet adjust as well, So feet are pointing parallel, Hips are parallel. And then pull, Oh sorry, Bend your knee. I almost forgot. Lift up to warrior one, Virabandrasana A. Pull your shoulder blades down your back. Send your gaze up if you're feeling strong. Feeling confident in your dristique. In your focus. Good. Now inhale, Straighten through the left leg. Pull your hands behind your back. Fist together. Four arms grab or reverse prayer? Look up, Inhale. Exhale fold forward take your gaze way down and back toward that right foot Really lengthening the neck, Really pulling in through the torso and feeling this long stretch through the entire back of your left leg. Inhale. Exhale, Release your hands down to the floor. Maybe the torso lengthens even more. It's okay if your hands aren't on the floor. You can use your block. You can have your hands along your leg. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Bend your left knee. Take that right knee down to the floor so we can adjust for pigeon pose. Bring this left leg parallel to the top of the mat as best as you can get. Walk your right leg behind you. A block, Perhaps. Underneath your hip. Or in front of you for your forearms or maybe your head. Resting on that block One more chance here as we slow the movement and feel this depth in the outer edge of the hip. Just focus on your goal. What is your Drishti? Are you still connected to it? Return to that drishti. One more breath inhale Exhale. Inhale lift up just on to all fours Let's widen our knees a little bit wider than our hips Sit back, Reach your arms forward and press those hips toward the heels for Balasana or Child's Pose. Now reaching equally through both sides of the body. Let's walk our hands over to our right side. So we're feeling a little extra tug. Through the left side of the body. Left hip, Maybe. Walk your hands over to the right side. Or sorry, Left side, So you're pulling on the right side. Good. And then gently. Walk your way up. Beautiful. And bring your legs around to sit Nicely done. Let's stretch we might need our strap a little more so just keep it close Start by hurtling your right leg back. So the top of the foot comes along the floor. You'll get a nice shin stretch and a top of the foot stretch. And we'll begin to bring ourselves back. You can start on your elbows. Most people can get to their elbows if that's easy for you and you feel like going deeper. Then feel free to lay all the way down and you can pull your arms over your head. The thing to be aware of is this knee. If the knee is lifted, Then you've gone too far. Then you should be able to press down. What a great stretch to open up the front of the body, The hip flexor and the quadriceps. Take it as you can though. It's not a race. No need to impress anybody. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Good job. Let's shimmy our way up. It's kind of awkward from the floor. Do your best. Use your elbows. Use your hands. Going to pull myself around to face you. So we still have this right leg hurtled and now the left leg comes in front. Let's take the right hand across. Grab onto your knee and bring your left hand to the floor. Oh, I'm sorry. This is your left hand. This is your right hand. We're going to gaze back. Toward the right shoulder. Now keep your body where it is, But turn your gaze. To the front shoulder. Thinks I said my rights and lefts wrong. I'm not mirroring you. I'm doing the opposite of you, Aren't I? We'll do both sides. Don't worry about it. It's gonna work its way out. Good. Now come forward this leg that was hurtled in front and behind Swing it up and around. We might all have different legs, But let's do the same motion. Swing it up and around and on top. So now we've got our knees and our ankles stacked on top of each other. If this is hard for you, Just place it in front. Criss-cross position, Just as long as that leg is in front. Then start to walk your way forward. This is gonna feel great on that hip. The leg that's on top is the primary hip. You can go down as far as you want to go. Just breathe deep. Trying to relax those hips. Good. And walk your way up nicely done now this leg that's on top if you can Stack your knees on top of each other. Again, If that's hard for you, You might just stay in this crisscross and that's fine, Right? That's totally fine. Let's twist. We're going to pull our opposite arm's leg onto the knee or onto the leg there. And then the hand behind us. This is such a good deep sacrum pull. You should feel this right through the low back, Right at the base of the spine. Really nice. Send your gaze behind you. Good. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale come forward nicely done let's unwind and extend our legs. They've been bent for a while so it feels nice to lengthen. Grab your strap. Place it around your feet. For Paschimottanasana. You may not need the strap if it's very easy for you to reach for your toes. Sit tall. Inhale. Exhale walk your way forward on that strap or maybe you can grab your toes Take an extra breath, Pull in through the middle. Inhale, Lift Uddiyana Bandha. Exhale, Fold yourself down. Let's imagine our drishti think of it as the third eye perhaps we're going to get a little bit into our chakra And you might take a moment to just think into your past. Lessons that you've learned from your past. Things that have shaped you, Made you who you are. And affect your focus today. Inhale lift up. Let's release that strap exhale hurdle back the left leg or the other leg remember I messed up my rights and lefts so just do the opposite one that's gonna be pulled back so the top of the foots on the floor shins on the floor and we'll walk our way behind Maybe you're on your elbows. Great. Maybe you're able to go all the way to the floor. And take the arms overhead. Great stretch, Good opening up of the torso through the hole. Front of the body. Breathe deep. Let's start to walk our way up. Shimmy your way up. And the hurtled leg is going to stay there, The other leg will come in front. Pull your opposite arm around to that front leg and the hand behind you. Gaze back to the shoulder. Maybe we're looking into the past. Just like we did in our forward bend. And then as we turn our gaze, But our body stays, We turn our gaze to the shoulder that's in front. Maybe we're looking to our future. The future that we're going to create. By remaining focused on our drishti. Come forward with your body. Take the hurtled leg. Up and over the top. Stacking the knees and the ankles or Criss-cross the hurtled leg in front. Okay. Sit tall. Inhale. Exhale, Walk your way forward. Ooh, Feeling that hip. All through here, The glutes, The sacrum. We can feel that pull. At least I can. This pose is not easy for me. So I can feel it right away. Breathe through it. Nice, Deep, Relaxing breath. We tell our body, Calm down. It's okay. And walk your way up. Now if you're in crisscross you'll just stay there or maybe you're stacking your knees on top of each other for Ogamukasana in the legs, But we'll do a twist variation. Walk your hands across. To that opposite of the leg and pull the other one behind your back and look behind you. Feel that really deep spiral. Right deep into the sacrum. A really good twist. Should feel like a dishrag here, Twisting out. Come forward. Release your legs. Last time we looked into our past, Now we're going to look into our future with a lift. So take your hands behind you, Fingertips facing your hips. Point your toes. Press into the floor, Either just open your chest, Let the throat open as you gaze to the sky, Or you're going even further. Letting your head fall back. Glimpsing that future Seeing the drishti very clear. Nicely done. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Come on down. Great work. Good for you. Let's come onto our backs. A couple of options for these next two poses. So you can stay right here. I would place your hands under your hips or a block under your hips to take a little strain out of the abdominals. Or if you're used to shoulder stand, Salamba Sarvangasana, You can go there now. Go ahead and lift up. And walk your hands down your back so you try to take the bend out of the waist. What this does here for our gaze, We're looking straight up at our toes. Don't look from side to side because you might move your head and injure your neck if you're not careful. But we're lengthening the back of the neck. As we tuck our chin into our chest. A really great chin lock here to relieve. To relieve pressure on the neck. It can relieve headaches. Little neck strain. Plus we're working on circulation. And metabolism being upside down like this. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Roll down Nice and slow. Even if you're here, Let's all come down to have our legs flat on the mat. Our arms by our side. Lift onto your elbows. Press your chest forward. And take the top of the head to the floor. This is Uttanaparasana. Now we're opening up the chest space and the throat space. If you'd like a little more abdominals, Lift the legs. Let them hover. You can even press your palms together here. All of these things are great. Choose your way. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Let's come down. Release the hold. Lay down on your back. Reach down, Grab your knees or the arches of your feet. Let's take a little happy baby. Now our neck is nice and still. We're just gazing straight up and we're rocking. Our hips from side to side Again, Playing around with that sacrum release. Time to start easing our bodies. Bring your knees into your chest. Take your arms out to a T. And let the legs drop to the right side. Then turn your gaze. This will give you a nice neck twist. Over to the left. See what you can relax. See what you can let go of. Definitely through the low back, Hip. Shoulders, And neck. Inhale, Come back to the center. Exhale, Drop your legs to the left. And then turn your head over the right. Again, One last squeeze. To let go of areas that get tight, Neck, Shoulders, Chest. We've all had tight spots in those areas at some point in our lives. Inhale, Come back into the center. And exhale, Release the legs, Relax them onto the floor. Take your palms open. Close your eyes now. And just let your body and mind float as you take in all of the good work that you've done. I will leave you to rest here I'll wake you up with the sound of a bell. So just let your thoughts float. And take in the good work you've done. Gently start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen through your entire body. And roll over onto one side in fetal pose. Which signifies a reset, Starting again. Dently press up to a comfortable seated position. And bring your hands to heart center with your eyes closed. Before we open our eyes. Just take a moment to look inward. And see the divine in you. Let's salute that divinity within. Thank you for your practice today. Namaste.