Veteran's Day Yoga: Honor Our Warriors

Join me for this 45-minute online yoga class dedicated to honoring Veterans Day by finding peace within yourself. In this gentle yet grounding yoga practice, we’ll focus on releasing tension, calming the mind, and reconnecting with your essential center.

Whether you're a veteran, a military family member, or simply seeking inner calm, this class is designed to help you surrender your cares and find transcendent peace in body, mind, and spirit.

Transcript

Welcome. Welcome to this special Veterans Day Yoga, Where we are going to celebrate the feelings of peace. Peace in our body, Peace in our mind, And peace with our yoga practice. So let's close our eyes. We'll let our shoulders roll back. Chin tucked just a little bit so we have that length of length in the back of the neck. And just start to breathe in and out just through your nose. Let's celebrate peace in the body, Mind, And spirit. Surrender your cares with your yoga practice today. Yoga is about reconnecting with the essential center of yourself. This. Is the quality of peace. That we will try to find today as we move and breathe together. Let's open our eyes. Take our arms by our sides nice deep breath here inhale lift up Exhale, Release. Maybe picture in your mind a veteran, Someone serving in the military that you love and admire. Inhale, Lift. We can dedicate this breath to them. Exhale, Release. Once more, Together in unity, Inhale, Lift. Exhale, Release. Bring your hands to heart center. And for a moment, Just draw your mind, Your attention to your breath. When you own your breath. No one can steal your peace. Let's use our breath today as a partner as we move and flow together. So come on to all fours. I'll swing around so I'm turned on the side so that you can see. Let's just move through cat and cow. Biddle-ah-son-ah. Drop your belly down, Maybe the elbows bend a little bit. Send a deep breath, Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Round through the spine. Tuck your chin, Pull your head and your hips in and feel that lift through the upper back. Inhale, Arch, Belly drops down, Send the gaze up. Exhale, Round, Pull and lift. Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Inhale, Arch. Exhale, Round. Come back to neutral. Extend your right arm out and your left leg. Little bit of balance just go ahead and look down feel a lift up and in through the center of our body reach inhale if you want to go a little deeper on our exhale you can reach back and grab your foot if that's not for you just stay here yes you choose Keep breathing. Keep stretching. Inhale. Exhale, Release it down. Other side, Inhale, Lengthen. Looking down once more. You can stay right here. Get a little bit of balance if you want to go deeper. Exhale, Reach back, Grab onto your foot. And press that foot into the hand. Little arm. Quadricep glute stretch. Feel free to extend it out if it's too much. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale, Place it down. Nice job, Nice job. Lift onto your toes, Stretch your hips to the sky, And press back. We're in our first downward facing dog. So if you're feeling tight today, Pedal the feet. Soften up the ankles and calves. Feel lots of lift through the center of your body. Maybe bending both knees and pressing back through your shoulders feels nice. Whatever it is. But let's come forward to a plank. And shift our weight onto our right hand and right foot. This is Vasi Stasana, A fairly intense pose. If it's too much, Drop to the knee. I'll demonstrate. And just feel that lift. Maybe we can do a little balance, Balancing physically, But also balancing our chi. Which has a calming effect. On our body and on our mind and helps us to feel relaxed. So again, If you want to go deeper. Here. Good. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, Place that left hand down, Drop your knees and shift back. Almost like a child's pose just kind of stretching the shoulders and lengthening out the wrists. Come forward. Lower down onto your stomach, Pull your elbows back, Little baby cobras. Inhale, Press up. Exhale, Lower down. Inhale, Press up. Exhale, Lower down. Once more, Inhale, Press up. Exhale, Lower down. Lift up onto your knees. Roll up onto your toes and press back, Downward facing dog once more. Good. Second one maybe feels a little different or could feel exactly the same. Do what you can. Come forward to plank. Shift onto your left hand, Left foot. Or like we did last time, Option to drop to your left knee. You choose your way. Find your balance. If you look down, Your shoulder, Elbow, And wrist should be stacked. Right on top of each other. Building a string. Building balance. Feeling lift in our torso. Inhale. Exhale. Nice job. Right hand to the mat. Drop to your knees, Kind of like a wave. Press back. Reach through those wrists. Lengthen the sides of the body. Inhale, Come forward. Exhale, Lower down. Elbows are right by your sides. Cobra. Inhale, Press up. Exhale, Lower down. Inhale, Press up. Exhale, Lower down. Inhale, Push up. Exhale, Lower down. Press up onto your knees, Onto those toes, And lift. To downward facing dog. Good. This whole time we've been connecting our breath with the movements in our body. Let's continue it as we move toward Vinyasa, Sirinamaskara A. So walk forward to your hands. And let yourself just hang forward for a moment. My arms reach the floor, But yours may not. Don't worry if they don't. They can just hang. You can grab onto your legs or just hang. Just be forward for a moment. Feel free to soften the knees. If you wanna release the back, Bending the knees helps with that. Let yourself be forward. Let's roll up through our spine, One vertebrae at a time. Nice job. As we come up, We can pull our shoulders back. And open up the front of our chest and body. And we'll begin Surya Namaskara A, Linking breath with movement. You can have your feet hip-width distance apart or pull them a little closer together, Whatever is comfortable for you. Take a breath. Inhale, Reach our arms up to the sky. Exhale, Swan dive forward. Inhale, Look up halfway, Lift. Your hands may be on the ground or they might be on your shins, Whatever you choose. Exhale, Hands down, Step back to plank. You can stay lifted here or drop your knees. I'll show the first one on my knees. Chaturanga, Elbows bend. We try to hover over the mat. Inhale, Press into the floor. We're going a little deeper than baby cobra as our hips hover off the mat just a little bit. Exhale shift into those hips as we lift high and lower down to downward facing dog. Say a little mantra to yourself. In your mind, Just repeat after me. I am centered. I am balanced. I am at peace. Bend your knees, Look forward, Inhale, Step or hop up to the hands. Exhale, Fold down into your legs. Inhale, Reverse swan dive, Reach up to the sky. Exhale, Samasthiti, Arms by our sides. Nice job. Let's try it again. See if we can get a rhythm in our bodies. Inhale, Lift up, Feel that reach, Sides of the body lengthen. Exhale, Swan dive down. Inhale, Look up, Halfway lift. Again, Hands on the floor or maybe on your shins. Exhale, Hands come down, Step back, Drop to your knees or stay lifted, Chaturanga. Inhale, Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog. Exhale, Press up and through to Adho Mukha Svanasana, Downward Facing Dog. Very nice. Again, Pulling up and in through the center of our body. So we really feel that lift. Let's repeat our mantra once more. In your mind, Say after me. I am centered. I am balanced. I am at peace. Nicely done. Lift your right leg, Inhale, Up and back behind you. Exhale, Bring it through in between your hands and let's drop the left knee down to the floor. At this point, You might enjoy utilizing some blocks. You can take your blocks on the floor right by your foot. So just place your hands on the blocks there. And the blocks can be adjusted. As high as you want. It just changes the angle of the leg. If you're feeling okay and you'd like to release from the blocks, You might reach up into Anjanyasana. Feel free to come here if you want. Feel the breath coming and going as we just press in. Into this pose and into those hips. Peace goes with me wherever I go. Inhale. Exhale, Release your hands down. Maybe they come down to that block, Those blocks. Lift up onto your left toe. And see if you can reach up. Got to get my balance. Up to the sky. And we're in Ashtachandrasana, A high lunge. Little bit of a challenge for that ankle and calf. If it's too much, Drop the heel down. And that's fine. You choose your way. Let's take this into a twist. Bring your left arm forward and take your right arm back. Ooh, Hard to stay on our feet just a little bit. Feel that rotation of the hips. And the shoulders. Very nice. Lift up, Dropping your right hand down and reaching your left arm up to the sky. That right hand just kind of wraps around your hip or your back or onto that leg, A little opening up of the chest. Nice work. Inhale. Exhale, Windmill your hands down to the mat. Our blocks are there so we can use them. Let's release that left knee down to the mat once more. Good, Good. We found the ground on the floor a little bit more grounded. Now take this right leg and walk it out so you might put your right block to the inside of that right leg and let's pull open through that hip joint through the hip, Through the legs, So we can feel this IT band on that outer right hip. Press down. If you want to go deeper, We've got our blocks here. You might move to your forearms and just go a little deeper. Keep your breath calm. Keep your breath at peace. If you want your spirit to be at peace and relaxed. Practice yoga. That's not something I have to tell to all of you because you're here with me. Nicely done. Take one more breath right here. Inhale. Exhale. Let's lift up onto our hands and we'll set that right foot back. Move the blocks out of the way, We'll keep them close because we'll need them on our other side. And join me once again in Downward Dog. Go ahead and lift up. Extend that right leg, Same leg we were just working, Up and back behind us, And bend the knee, Opening up that hip a little bit more. Press into that left side, Press through your shoulders. You can stay right here. If you feel like going deeper, Let your right foot come to the floor as we flip ourselves over. An into wild thing. Just an option, Don't feel pressured. Definitely opens up our chest, Stretches the whole front of the body. If you decide to follow me here. Let's come back around. Ooh, Maybe some of us are still not three-legged down dog. Let's meet each other here. Extend the leg. And put it down. Nicely done. Press back equally into both hips. And let's take our left side. So extend the left leg up and back behind you. Inhale. Exhale, Bring it forward in between your hands and drop that right knee down. Let's use our blocks again. Place them. Even if you don't use them, You might just have them here just in case you want to reach for them at any point. So you may keep your hands on your blocks, Adjust them however high you'd like, Or you can lift up to Anjanyasana. If you'd like to go to that. Deeper lifted position, You are welcome to do so. Good. We feel strong in our hips. But we know that we can make changes. We can change by using blocks. By adjusting things, And we're at peace with that. We're at peace with working with what our body can do. Take one more breath here, Inhale. Exhale, Bring your hands down. You can use those blocks. Let's lift onto our left, I'm sorry, Our right foot. Get control through the center of our body, And lift up the spine. Thai lunch. Good. Remember option, You can drop that heel to the floor. It's a little more stable, Like a warrior one. So if you want to do that, That's fine. Give yourself the challenge, A little bit more of a balance challenge, A little bit more of an ankle stretch. Good, Let's move into our twist. This time bringing the right arm forward and pulling that left arm back. Nicely done. Feel those hips revolve. We can feel this through the outer hip and really open up through our chest and throat. Inhale, Lift back up, But this time we're just gonna drop our left arm and our right arm comes up to the sky. Left arm reaches behind. A little bit of revolving there, A little bit of twisting. As we open up our chest. Inhale. Exhale, Windmill the hands down to the mat. Nice job. Drop that right knee once more. Find the ground, Find the stability. Good, Feels nice and peaceful on the ground. Take your left block. Into the inside and walk your left foot out. Maybe roll to the pinky toe edge. We can see and we can feel this outer hip opening up. Stay here on your hands, Perhaps this is deep enough or. . . Go ahead and deepen even more. Dropping our elbows down as we press. Into that outer hip. And here we're just going to let our breath take over. And breathe into this deep spot. Peace comes from within. Not from without. Find that peace within you right now. So that we can hold into this deep pose and make our body feel so great. All right. Good, Let's take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Gently lift up. Nicely done. Beautiful stretch. We'll move the blocks out of the way. Come onto our hands and onto that right foot so we can step the left foot back. And we're in downward facing dog. Lift the left leg up and back behind you. And bend your knee this time. And just press into that. Right leg. Through those shoulders. Maybe this is where you want to stay. That's great. Or maybe you're going to. Bring that left foot to the floor. Flipping your body over. And into wild thing. You decide where you wanna go with this. Good. Inhale, Come back around. Back everybody in three-legged down dog and release that foot to the mat. Take a breath here, Inhale. Exhale, Bend your knees, Sit back down. Into a child's pose. We reach forward and press back at the same time and just drop our forehead down. And take a moment to breathe. When you find peace within yourself. You become the kind of person. Who can live in peace. And live in peace with others. That's our goal today. Peace within ourselves. Peace with others. Nicely done. Go ahead and lift up and let's bring ourselves around to sit. Extend your legs forward in front of you and grab your strap if you have one. If you don't have one, You could use a hand towel or a pillowcase, A belt, Anything that you can wrap around your feet. Let's do that now. Place your strap around your feet. If you have extra, Extra tight hamstrings, You could also sit on one of your blocks. Or sit on a blanket or a bolster and that will help to tilt the pelvis and release a little pressure from the hamstrings. So feel free to move to that if you'd like. Sit nice and tall, Pull up through the middle, Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward. You can grab on to the strap as you pull forward. If you can reach your feet, Great. You don't need the strap. Let's take a breath again. Inhale, Pull up through the middle. Exhale, Deepen the pose. See if you can relax your shoulders, Your neck. And relax into the pose. Just breath by breath. This is a hard one, It works the hamstrings, The hips. The back. So it may be hard to relax into it right at first. Remember. Piece comes from within. Not from without, See if you can find that piece within yourself. Inhale, Lift up. Nice job. Exhale, Release. Very good. We're going to change one thing. Pull the right foot out so the left foot still has the strap. We're now in Janu Sirsasana A. You might find this a little bit easier because we're only gonna work the left hamstring. We've opened up that right hip, So it's gonna feel a little different on that right side. Should enjoy it. Sit tall, Inhale. Exhale, Fold yourself down, Grab on, Pull those shoulders back, And bend into it. Good. So maybe this one feels different? I like this one better, I have to admit. Of course, We're going to do both sides. So enjoy what there is to sense the sensations you feel. On this side. Always that calming deep breath to hopefully relax our body as we go. Very nice, Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Release. Let's switch sides. Right foot in the strap. Left foot pulls out. Nice and tall, Keep this right leg straight. Inhale. Exhale, Fold forward. Draw those shoulders back, Pull up and in through your center, And see if you can deepen at all. Maybe you can. Beautiful sensation through our back. Through our hips and hamstring. All about releasing tension in our body. Hips, Hamstring, And back, Three areas that hold a lot of tension. See what we can let go. Inhale, Lift up. Exhale, Release. Nicely done. We can set that strap aside and let's come up onto our knees. Those were three beautiful forward folds. Now to have a little balance, We'll see what we can do by reaching back. So this is Ustrasana. First, Let's start by just taking our fists to our back. Pull your elbows behind you. Guide your hips forward. As we press and see if you can just let your head fall back. This opens up the front of the body. Opens up our chest and throat. We can feel that whole. Extension of the front of the body while we squeeze our back body. Inhale, Lift up. Release your hold, Exhale, Let your gaze come down. Sometimes we get a little dizzy in this pose. Now, If you know that you can reach for your heels, That's where we're going to go next. A helpful hint is just to lift onto the toes, It brings the heels a little closer. So if that might help you, Try that. We're just going to start with a fist on our back once more. Start to lean, And if you feel like you want to, You can reach those hands for the heels. Remember, You can lift onto your toes if you want. Let your head fall back. And wow, This opens up our chest so much more, Doesn't it? Feels lovely. We're pulling back those shoulders. Really opening up to our hearts to the peace that we might find. Within our day today. Nicely done. Go ahead and lift up. Let's come forward, Let our knees open a little wider than our head. And sit down onto those hips as we reach our torso forward. Child's pose, Changing the direction of the back. Speaking of change. You cannot always change what goes on outside. But you can always. Change. What goes on ends. That's where we have the control. Very nice. Lift up. And go ahead and roll onto your back. We'll finish off with a few bridge poses and then some twists. And a beautiful Shavasana. So come on down. Take your arms by your sides, Our feet hip-width distance apart. And start to roll from the base of the spine all the way up. Take your hands underneath, Clasp them together. And let's remember. A veteran. Maybe it's someone that you know that has served in the military where you live. Not just fighting in a war necessarily, But serving day to day. In a military capacity. Dedicate this bridge to that person. Inhale. Exhale, Come on down. Roll down one vertebrae at a time. To relax and just pull your knees together and let the knees touch for a moment. Just to relax the lower back and hips. We're going to take a second one. Bring your legs back to parallel, Arms by the sides. Inhale, Roll up. If it's too hard to clasp your hands underneath, Just press your hands to the mat. That's fine. Or go ahead and relax into it. And this time maybe you don't personally know someone who serves in the armed forces or who has served in the armed forces. But you know that there are people who are. So you might dedicate this bridge pose. To the armed forces in your country, Those that are helping to protect your peace. Dedicate this pose to them. Take one more breath. Inhale Exhale, Come on down, Release your hold. Lower yourself down. Nicely done. And let's grab a block. And for this last bridge pose, Take the block underneath your hips. So you can decide what height. I'm on the middle height, As you can see. You can go lower than that. And you can certainly go higher to that tall edge. I'm just going to stick with middle today. You choose. Take your arms out. And close your eyes. And feel how your body comes. To peace comes at peace. When we have the block holding us up, We don't have to work so hard. In our glutes and in our hips. Hamstrings, In our abdominals. In our shoulders. We can just be at peace. We can breathe. And feel the tension relax out of the body, Leave the body. Breath by breath. It's possible to stay in this pose for quite a while. Because it feels so good and we don't have to work so hard, But we're going to come out of it. Take one more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Gently lift your hips off that bolster or block. Come on down and pull your knees into your chest. Just give yourself a hug. This pushes the curve of the spine to the floor. So that you can relax through the back. Take your arms out to a T once more and let them drop to the right side. Then turn your head over the left. If you want to, You can use your hands to kind of put a little extra pressure on the legs or just leave it out. I'll leave that to you. I'm going to put a little pressure. And enjoy this release one more time through our back. Through our hips. Or shoulders. Or chest. Our neck. Try to let any last remaining tension go. Because we want to be at peace when we come into Shavasana. Coming up. Inhale, Bring your legs to the center. Exhale, Drop them to the left. Turn your gaze over to the right. We're in the other side of our twist. Just breathing deep and letting go of any last remaining tension. It doesn't serve us. We want to release it. Inhale, Come back to the center. Exhale, Release your legs, One leg to each edge of the mat, Arms by your sides. If you have a blanket or A bolster to put under your knees, Blanket to put on top, Whatever. Get comfortable. Get comfortable, Feel at peace. I'll let you rest here. And I'll wake you up with the sound of a bell. So no need to concern yourself. Just lay here. Take in the beautiful, Peaceful practice that we've had today. You Start to wake yourself up. Rotate through your wrists and your ankles. Point and flex your feet. Stretch your arms overhead to lengthen your entire body. And roll over onto one side in fetal pose. Gently press up to a comfortable seated position on your mat. And bring your hands to heart center. I'll leave you with this quote by BKS Iyengar. Yoga allows you to find your inner peace. That is not ruffled. And riled. By the endless stresses and struggles of life. I wish for you to find inner peace today. Thank you so much for joining me in practice. Namaste.