Mantra Yoga For Positivity

We all have self-talk, and sometimes it moves toward the negative. Let's change this negative self-talk to the positive. Through breath work, yoga poses, and positive mantras, you will change your self-talk.

Transcript

Welcome. Thank you for joining today. We're going to have a great session emotionally as well as physically, But we'll be able to talk about mantra, The words that we say to ourselves that sometimes affect how we react to situations or our self-esteem, Really. So when our inner dialogue is repeatedly negative, It can feel like you're listening to a broken record of. . . Of bad thoughts. There's self-defeating thoughts and they can wreak havoc on our self-esteem so today we're going to replace negative thoughts with positive ones, Hopefully positive words so that we can move to a healthier mental state. Let's close our eyes right now. And of course, Connect to our breath. The first thing we always do is to connect deeply with our inhales and our exhales. The hope is that we will listen to our body as we move. We won't do anything that feels. . . Very painful. If we encounter pain, We're going to change the pose, Make it more comfortable. And maybe think for yourself of just. . . A positive comment that you can make to yourself today. Positive mantra. Phrase. Something like, I am fill in the blank. I am powerful. I am strong. I am loved. Whatever it is. I'll offer some positive words as we go just to keep our minds centered on uplifting. So let's open our eyes, Take them by our sides here, Our arms by our sides. And seal that positive mantra with a breath. So inhale, Lift up. Think of something positive. Exhale, Release it down. Good, Good. Come to all fours. We'll start with some gentle movement, Just cat and cow moving our spine and going into child's pose afterward. So drop your belly down, Shoulders roll back, Inhale, Send your gaze up to the sky. Exhale, Round through your spine. Pull and lift, Tucking that chin under and the hips inward. Inhale, Arch, Belly drops down, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round, Tuck and lift. Once more, Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Now come back to neutral and let your knees open a little wider than your hips. Sit back into a child's pose and reach your arms forward. We can just drop our forehead to the floor, Or if that feels too far down, Take a block underneath you, And it's just not quite as far to reach. Whatever feels good to you, Whatever feels nourishing to your hip. Your back body And just say to yourself, My body is worthy of love. We're going to ask our bodies to do some amazing things today. And we want to feel that we are worthy of love. Good. Let's lift up onto our hands and lift up onto the feet, Dropping those heels downward. They don't have to touch, But we're reaching them. Toward the floor. To stretch through the backs of the legs So, Of course, This is Downward Facing Dog, Atamukhasvanasana. Good. Now start to walk your feet forward towards your hands. We'll move this block out of the way. Just roll up through your spine. One vertebrae at a time. Good. Good. Nice. As we lift up, Our shoulders can roll back nice and tall through our spine. We'll begin Sura Namaskara A to start warming up our body. Reach up, Inhale, Lift to the sky. Exhale, Swan dive all the way forward Good. Soften your knees if you need to. You do not have to touch the floor, But you might. Inhale, Look up halfway lift. Your hands might come up your legs a little bit or stay on the ground if you're that flexible. Exhale, Hands down. Let's step back to a plank. And for this first one, Just lower all the way down onto your stomach. Roll your shoulders back. Have your hands just pressed right by your ribcage and lift up to cobra. So we're feeling our low back engage. A little bit through our arms, But our back should be doing most of the work. Exhale lower back down let's try that again two more times inhale lift up Just moving with our breath. Exhale, Lower it back down. Last one inhale lift up Exhale, Lower. Good. Now press onto your knees, Lift onto your toes and reach up again to downward facing dog. A few breaths here. Just feel it in the backs of the legs. It's fine to move our body, Peddling the feet if that feels good to you. Stretching out, Waking ourselves up a little. Waking up those muscles. Now let's step forward toward our hands. Hop forward if you'd like. Fold down into your legs. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach all the way up to the sky. Exhale, Samasthiti, Arms by our sides. Good. Let's do it one more time. We'll add a little bit. Inhale, Reach up. Exhale fold down Inhale, Look up halfway, Liz. Exhale hands down. Let's step back to our plank and lower all the way to the stomach again. This time when we do our cobra, We're going to lift our legs as well. So press into the floor and lift those legs a little bit deeper through the back. Exhale lower both down our head and legs Inhale, Lift it up. Chest and legs. If that feels like too much, Leave the legs on the floor. Exhale, Lower it back down. Once more. Inhale with the legs, With the chest. Exhale, Lower. Nice job. Press onto those knees again. Up onto your toes and into downward facing dog. Good nice. Hopefully you're starting to feel a little bit of that warmth through our body. Let's keep going into some deeper poses Step your right foot forward and drop the left knee to the floor. So if you've got knee challenges, You can put a blanket underneath your knee. Give yourself a little extra padding. Let's place our hands just right on the right knee or you can reach your arms up to the sky. Another option here, Instead of having the knee on the ground, You can have your hands down and lifted. So it's a different kind of lunge, Certainly, But it's still beneficial. Or. . . Here. Or here, Right? Three good options. Take your pick. Feeling a little bit of warmth through that right hip. Inhale, Let's change it. Exhale, Drop your left hand down and reach that right arm up to the sky. So we're opening up our chest and our shoulder. Feeling a little twisting in that side body. Good. Inhale lift back up to the center and we're going to turn ourselves toward the camera and rotate on this left knee Extend your right leg. Take your right hand to your knee and then reach that left arm up and over. So we're in a gate pose, Getting the side body. And tell yourself, My body is fierce and fabulous. Awesome. Come back down with that left hand and go ahead and put it on the floor, Just propping ourself up. And then we can reach that right arm up and over and feel the length. Through the right side body, Maybe a length into this hip. Kind of a fun space right there. Beautiful. Now turn yourself and bring the right hand to the floor and drop onto both knees and we can do our other side. So now the left foot steps forward. And our options, Again, We can have our hands on our left knee there. We can reach our arms up to the sky. Or we can have our hands down and the knee off the floor if you want less pressure onto the knee. So remember to place padding underneath your knee in any case if you need it. Good. Just reaching through that torso. Now let's turn this into a twist. Take your right hand down and that left arm is going to open and reach to the sky. You might feel your left hip pulling back a little bit. That twisting in the torso. Good. Nice. Release that hand to the floor and we're going to pivot onto our right knee. So we're facing the camera and straightening out that left leg. Nicely done. Take your left hand to the leg. Reach that right arm up and stretch out the right side of the body. Good. Beautiful. Bring the right hand down to the floor just right below your shoulder and reach the left arm up and over. We feel that strong link. Nicely done that leads us back over to this side again we just made a fun little square on our mat Let's step our right foot forward once more, But this time get off of our knees, Draw that left heel to the ground, And raise up to warrior one, Virabhadrasana A. Inhale here. Good. Now we're on the ground. Well, We're on our feet on the ground. So tell yourself, My body is strong and stable. We try to find our balance in this new space here. Good. Go ahead and open to warrior two, Virabhadrasana B, Opening up through those hip flexors. So now we feel it right here through our inner thigh as we place a little extra pressure into that right hip. Options to get a little deeper you can place your forearm to your thigh or we've got our blocks here Grab it and put it by the pinky toe side of your foot and reach the left arm overhead. So we're putting a little extra effort into that right hip. You can certainly do without the block altogether and just bring your hand to the ground if that works best for you as well. Good, Pressing down into that hip. Nicely done lift up let's use our obliques to lengthen and turn our toes toward each other i'm very wide i'm going to step in just a tiny bit you might need to as well Prasarita Padachanasana A. Hands to the hips. Inhale, Look up. Exhale fold forward you can take your hands down to the floor if you're not able to reach that's what a block is for And walk it back so it's between your feet. Then let's press into the ground or the block. Look up. Lengthen your spine. We're just shifting our hips really. Exhale, Fold ourselves back down. We can feel the backs of the legs all the way up into those hips. As we let our torso just lengthen over the hips Good stretch for the back of the body. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. We did a little lingering there. Inhales, Stretch into your spine. Look up halfway left. Exhale, Bring your hands to your waist. Inhale lift up very nice and we'll take our hands behind us now I'd like to demonstrate with a strap if we have chest or shoulder tightness we can have a strap in our hands that way we can move our hands along the strap so it just helps with a little bit of mobility if you need that please use it Press into your hands or your strap, Whatever you're choosing. Look up. Inhale. Exhale fold forward and see if we can pull our hands away from our back So with the strap you see that you can extend your grip and just go a little bit deeper If you've got your hands. It's just a little bit trickier. Work with your abilities. Very nice. Let's come all the way up. Good. I dropped my strap so we can all release the strap. Just set it off to the side and take our hands to our hips and turn our body. It's important that we bring both toes to face this side so that our hips realign. Our hips should be square. Excellent. Go ahead and bend that left knee and reach up. We find ourselves doing warrior one. Now on our left side. And last time on this side, We told ourselves, My body is strong and stable. Here we are again. We just shifted sides, But we're still accessing that strength that we have within us. Inhale. Exhale open it up to warrior two virabhadrasana B feeling yourself deep and into the left hip and Length all through the front of the hips Very nice everyone. Reach either the elbow to the thigh or you're reaching for the floor or you're reaching for a block on the pinky toe side of the foot and pull that right arm overhead A little bit deeper into that left hip now. Listen to your body. Feel that breath coming and going. And just tell yourself, My body is full of wisdom. You know what you need. Listen to that inhale lift up let's straighten through our legs step big step all the way forward to the top of the mat here I'm just going to clear my space a little bit Let's keep going. Utkatasana, Chair pose. Inhale, Bend your knees, Come up to reach your arms, And we're in chair pose. Utkatasana. Now we can play around with our balance and strength a little bit here. Pull your arms behind and see if you can lift up onto your toes. Into drinking birds. Then inhale, Drop the heels, Reach the arms back up. Exhale, Shift into Drinking Bird. Inhale drop those heels reach up Quadriceps are holding strong. Exhale. Shift into that drinking bird. Good. This time, Let's inhale. Straighten our legs. A little bit of a break. Exhale bend it back down bring your hands to heart center here we go again Here we go, This time twisting. Right elbow to the outside of the left knee. Press into it and open up through the chest. Feel the heart center open. If you want to, You can open your arms. Quads are working hard. Our bodies are full of wisdom. Remember, Bring your hands to heart center. Shift over to the other side. Press against your leg. Maybe opening the arms if you did so last time. Feel that squeeze. Good for digestion. Good for our spine. Good. Bring it back to the center. Inhale. Here's our release. Exhale. Fold forward. Oh, Forward bends. Never felt so good. If you've got your blocks close by, You can certainly use them. Just let yourself feel that length through the backs of the legs. Good. Inhale, Hands to the shins, Halfway lift. Exhale, Hands back down to the mat. Step back to plank. I'm going to do chaturanga this time. First one that we've done all day. So drop to your knees here or stay lifted. Inhale. Exhale, Chaturanga. Inhale, Uravamukha Svanasana, Upward facing dog. Exhale, Atamukha Svanasana. Downward facing dog Very nice. Deep breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Lower down onto your knees. Sit back into child's pose. Good. Second time we've been here. And it's a resting position. But do you feel powerful after all of those strong standing poses? Tell yourself, My body is powerful beyond measure. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Let's lift up. And roll around to have a seat. Good. Extend our legs out in front of us. Perfect. Go ahead and bend your right knee so that we're taking a little pressure off of the hips and just focusing on one hamstring. Then we'll utilize a strap. You can put the strap around your left foot. That ensures that you can have a good stretch even if you can't grab your toes. Take a deep breath, Inhale, Exhale, Walk your way forward. You might be able to reach the toes. If you do, Then you don't need the strap. Once you get as far as you can, Take a breath, Pull up through the middle of the body, And then exhale, Fold yourself down. We've shifted our focus from the strong standing poses to now the deep stretches. And we can do this because our body has been warmed. And we've been able to. . . Feel different muscles working and now we get to stretch them out. Such a beautiful thing. Very nice. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Gently lift up nicely done release that strap And let's start to walk our way backwards. So a couple of options for us. We mentioned some knee concerns earlier. If you have no knee concerns, You can turn this leg and hurdle it behind you. If that is too much for your knee, Just keep it here. And that's perfectly fine. Then we're going to take our hands back behind us and we might be able to rest onto our elbows or even just kind of propping our hands and pulling our shoulder blades toward each other. Some of us are real bendy and we can go all the way down and then you might be able to reach your arms overhead. Now certainly only do this if it feels right. You're going to know. You're going to feel it in your quadricep and hip flexor and potentially through your shoulders and your chest as well. If you're on your elbows, It does feel nice to press your shoulder blades toward each other and lift through the chest. So that gives you a little bit of strength in the upper body. That's beneficial too. Very nice. Good. Now getting up is sometimes the trickiest part, Especially if you're on the ground. Just do your best. Walk onto those hands. Shimmy yourself around. I'm going to turn back to front. And then this right leg that's hurtled back here, We're going to cross it over the left. Not quite done with that right side. Now you can keep this left leg extended like I'm doing, Or you can tuck it. Decide what feels best for you. You might play around with that. Then extend the right arm, Left arm, Up to the sky. Inhale. Exhale. Hook it on or just hug. Whatever works best. And the left hand, Right hand, Sorry, To the floor. Send your gaze back. We're in this beautiful twist. We just asked our back to do some amazing things. We folded forward, We folded back, And now we're twisting. See how that feels. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Nicely done come forward and let's unwind finally straightening out both legs good so we can reset and do the other side grab your strap handy for this first pose if you need it bend the left knee right leg stays straight so the strap goes around that right foot Sit tall, Inhale, Exhale, Walk yourself forward. Good. Go as deep as you can. And then once you've gone as far as you can, Take a breath. Pull up through the middle. Engage your center and fold back down. And just keep breathing. And feel that lift and extend every time. You might be able to just get deeper, Tiny bit by tiny bit. Each time you breathe. Good. One more breath here. Inhale. Exhale. Lift back up and we can release the strap. I'm going to turn to my side so you can see. Two options. We can leave our knee in this position, Especially if we have some knee strain. Or we can hurdle the leg back. This is more taxing on the knee, But it does give a deeper stretch if that's what you want. Then we start to go down so maybe we're on our hands here maybe we're on our elbows Maybe we're all the way down with our arms. Overhead. Whatever you choose to do is going to be great and you're going to feel it in lots of different places. Through the shoulders and chest maybe, Through the hip flexor and the quadricep maybe. It's a little different if you have your knee open to the side. All options are good. Let's take one more breath here. Inhale. Exhale, Hardest part is getting up. Especially if you're all the way on the ground. I'll swing myself back around. And then we're going to take this left knee up and over the right leg. Remember, You can leave this leg straight or you can bend it. Tuck it under, Whatever you choose. Extend your right arm. Inhale. Exhale, Hook it on or hug. Left hand to the floor. Sit tall. Send your gaze back. Feel that spiral. Now we've done both sides after we hold this for a moment so tell yourself my body is balanced and beautiful Just repeat that in your mind until you believe it, Right? Isn't that what we want? We want to believe this positive dialogue that we're creating for ourselves. Very nice. Good. Inhale back to the center. Exhale. Unwind your legs. Nicely done. Let's lay down on our back. For some bridge poses. So our arms can be by our sides and we want to make sure that the curve of our spine is on the ground so our back is not flat you might have to lift your hips just a little bit tilt that pelvis and then lower the hips back down and that just should lengthen the whole back body From the base of the spine we start to lift one vertebrae at a time. Go ahead and roll up. Use your glutes, Use your hamstrings, Use your low back. And our hands can just stay pressing into the floor. Or you can go deeper by clasping your hands underneath and pulling those shoulder blades toward each other. Gives you a little bit more shoulder and chest stretching and opening. But of course, Do what you can. And let's just say to ourselves, Thank you, Body. Thank you for working hard today. For moving with grace Good. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Release your hands. Lower all the way down. Good. Tucking that tailbone a little bit so we've pressed that curve of the spine to the floor. Nicely done. We're going to do one more just like that. So from the base of the spine, Start to roll up again, Pressing the hands to the ground or clasping them underneath. Whatever you're capable of doing is wonderful. And just again, Thank you, Body. Thank you for helping me move the way I want to. Thank you for allowing me to move through this beautiful world that we live in. Thank you. Good. Inhale. Exhale, Release the hands. Come on down. Very nice. Once your hips reach the mat, Bring your knees into your chest. And this will fully press that curve of the spine to the floor. Might feel good to rock a little bit. Move just a little bit through the hips and the sacrum. And then release your legs to the mat. Maybe your feet are a little bit wider this time. We'll take our arms out to a T. And we'll just windshield wiper these legs side to side. So I'm just letting my knees drop the same way. And I always like to say it's a windshield wiper, But it's a gentle rain. So you're not moving terribly fast. Just nice and slow from side to side. And we can feel our hip flexor and our quadricep as we drop down. And we can feel the gentle movement across the hips in the low back right at the sacrum. Sometimes motion feels nice after being held still in the bridge pose. Sometimes it's nice to move a little bit. Good. Now come back to the center and bring your feet together like a butterfly. So feet together, Knees open. That's what makes the butterfly, Yes? Supta Baddha Konasana. And you can just place your hands on your thighs for a little bit of added pressure. And just tell yourself one more mantra. Say, I trust my body. I trust my body to move the way I want to because I'm going to care for my body. I'm going to listen to my breath as I move. And do the things that are right. That will feel good. Now if you're comfortable in this hip opening position, You can just release your arms by your sides and enjoy Shavasana right here. If you would prefer to straighten out your legs that's perfectly fine as well. Just keep your eyes closed for a few moments. And absorb all of the good work that you've done. Perhaps you found a mantra today that really spoke to you, Something that I said or something that you came up with on your own. Take this mantra with you as you leave your mat and go out into your day, Into the world. Use it the next time you feel anxiety. Or fear. Or stress. And just see if you can change that inner dialogue for the better. I'll leave you here for a few more moments to rest and I'll ring the bell to wake you up. So just enjoy. Some peace and quiet. Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrist and your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Reach your arms overhead. To lengthen through your entire body from fingertip Toe toes. And then roll over to one side in fetal pose. Which signifies a restart. Beginning again, A new beginning. After doing yoga and breathing and mentally uplifting ourselves today. Gently press yourself up to a comfortable seated position. And we can bring our hands to heart center. Thank you for practicing with me today. To have the courage to move your body, And the courage to change your mental dialogue. Until we meet again on the mat, Namaste.