30-Minute Yoga For Focus: Exploring Breath, Bandha + Drishti

33:03

33:03

30-Minute Yoga For Focus: Exploring Breath, Bandha + Drishti

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

3

In this gentle 30-min class we explore the three main component’s laid out in classical Ashtanga yoga which guide your mind toward focus through movement. These are: Breath (more specifically Ujaii breath pranayama and vinyasa - breathing and moving at the same time), Bandha (locks that seal and divert your energy upwards through the body, ignited through the way we breathe) and Drishti (focus point/gaze point to avoid distraction). You'll move through a gentle warm-up, sun salutation, standing poses, and seated poses. Finishing with nadi shodhana pranayama, and your option to take rest once the video is complete.

Yoga Focus Breathwork Pranayama Asana Relaxation Mindfulness Child Pose Malasana Sun Salutation Twist Pose Nadi Shodhana Pranayama

Meet your Teacher

London, UK

Meet your Teacher

London, UK

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's 30-minute yoga practice. This is a yoga practice all centered around finding a feeling of focus if you're feeling a little bit scattered and all over the shop. Within yoga or within the kind of yoga that I kind of. . . My practice is rooted in i kind of explore different things but my work is always rooted within ashtanga yoga ashtanga means eight limbs um and within ashtanga yoga there's a very specific way that we find a feeling of focus and that is through tristana we call it in stanza tristana which is kind of like a three three pointed approach to focusing the mind and we focus the mind through three things well I would say traditionally they call it three things and these three things. So I'm going to give you another one at the end. That's another way that we find focus. So there's these three things we focus on. Our breath, Of course. With Ashtanga Yoga, We use a technique of breathing called Mujayi breath. Which is a victorious breath, Which I'll talk you through in a moment. We use bandha, Which is actually something that's often a little bit wrongly described, But it's kind of ignited through the way that we breathe. And drishti drishti is a really important one drishti is our focus point our gaze point is each posture that we do there's somewhere to look towards because when you're especially when you're practicing at home when you've got like laundry everywhere and work on the side and you're just taking this time for a little bit of a break or a wake up in the morning It's really, Really easy for your mind to get distracted just by looking at things around us. So when we're looking at one thing in each posture and listening to our breath while we're there, We have a really powerful and easy and simplified way to find focus throughout kind of a moving meditation practice. That's really what we're doing here. And I'm going to say the fourth thing that we use within Ashtanga method that helps us find focus. That maybe isn't explored so much in other techniques or other styles of yoga, You could call them. Approaches to yoga and that is that we actually use the same sequence. So you're always doing the same postures one after another in a traditional Ashtanga yoga class. That's not what we're going to be doing today, But I just thought I would put a note on that, That often people think that. . . Within practices where you are using the same postures a lot, Or even if you're doing the same video over and over again here on the EMBA platform. That maybe that's a bit boring or maybe you need a bit more variation. Whereas actually, When you're doing the same practice over and over again, You have. . . Nothing to really distract you thinking about what's coming next. Because you know what's coming next. So you can actually go deeper into where you are. Than if you're always kind of a bit scattered. I will make some more videos ashtanga focused here on Ember and also other techniques because I found along my journey that it actually depends on who the person is as to how much of that they need, How much doing the same thing over and over again that person really needs, And how much fluidity someone else might need. Create this space as one that could maybe meet you both because I've had phases in my own life where I've needed more structure and phases where I've needed to be a bit more fluid. But that's another story for another day. In today's practice, We're going to be focusing on the first three that I mentioned. Breath, Bandha, And Drishti. Let's start with breath. So I'm starting here. I'm sat on a block, But you could sit however you're comfortable. So long as your spine is nice and long, Shoulders down and relaxed, Away from your ears, And your neck can be nice and long. Soften your jaw, Soften your tongue, And as always, You can just gaze in front of you, Drishti, Focus point, Or close your eyes just for a moment. Now we're going to start with a Ujjayi breath. So this translates victorious breath. It kind of sounds a bit like Darth Vader or like the ocean. So you do that by breathing through your nose. And partially constricting the back of the throat, So you create more like an ocean-like sound as you breathe. So I'm not sure if my mic's going to pick it up, But let's try it. We create that big kind of ocean-like sound as you inhale and exhale. So that's one way approach breath and we try and continue that Ujjayi breath throughout the whole practice as best we can. The other way we use it is with banda, And we actually initiate banda through the way that we breed. And this is a technique, If you've been practicing with me for a long time, Will not be. . . New this is breathing into the side of the rib cage so if you bring your hands to your rib cage So your pinky fingers are kind of under the ribs, Your index fingers on the last rib. Take an inhale and inhale out to the side. As you exhale just think about finding length through the spine so we're not kind of knitting the rib cage back together we're just letting the ribs relax the spine lengthens and right at the end of the exhale you'll feel your navel draw back towards your spine And again inhale out to the side. Exhale find length. So when we're breathing in this way, The abdomen remains quite steady, Quite still. And what's happening on a really subtle level here is as you exhale, It actually lifts the pelvic floor muscles. And those two things, Keeping the abdomen quite strong and a lift, A really subtle lift to the pelvic floor, Are what we call banda. Banda translates to locks or seals. And what that does is it contains the energy within the body. It also creates strength in the body. And it's the feeling of almost lightness as we move through the practice. And as we're breathing here to the side of the ribcage, We're strengthening the diaphragm. We're strengthening the muscles connected to the diaphragm, Which are the deep core line in the body and the pelvic floor as well. So we're also using a bit more of our lung capacity here. So this is what we're going to try and continue as we move through the practice. That's a breath. With the ujjayi, Bandha, Just by breathing into the side of the ribcage. You don't need to consciously lift the pelvic floor. The breath does that for you, Which is just. . . So efficient, Don't you think? So let's start. Bring the hands to the knees. And we're going to move through some neck stretches just because they're very simple to try and connect to that ujjayi breath and breathing into the side ribs before you move on to anything else. So as you inhale. Breathe to the side ribs and look up towards the ceiling. Exhale find length through your spine look down towards the floor. Right, At the end of the exhale, Your belly button and your jaw back towards your spine. Inhale lifting your gaze up Exhale, Look down. Inhale looking up Exhale down. Inhale your head to neutral. Exhale look to the right. Inhale back to the middle. Exhale left. Inhale to the middle. Now exhale right ear to right shoulder. Notice how the movement's always following the breath as well. So that's another way we create focus is kind of using our breath as a guide. So we're kind of following the leadership of the breath. As we move through. Am I using those two techniques, The Ujjayi and the Banda, Just by breathing into the right space in the body to really be our guide throughout the whole practice? As you inhale, Bring your head back up. Exhale, Left ear, Left shoulder. Okay, Just breathe in here for a couple of breaths. Drishti, Keep your eyes focused on something in front of you. Then as you inhale, Bring your head back to neutral. Let's come up to all fours so coming off your proper fuel on a block Coming onto all fours or table top pose. So as always with tabletop we want shoulders over wrists. Knees underneath hips as always if you need extra cushioning underneath your knees and you can have a rolled up, I mean a folded up cushion. I can speak from a folded up towel or double up on the yoga mat underneath your knees just for a little bit of extra padding but otherwise. Let's come through some cat and cows. So again, Use your breath to guide your movement. Inhale into the side of the rib cage as you open your chest and look up. Exhale round your spine, Push the floor away. See if you can gaze towards your navel. If that's a little bit too much of a rounding, Then gaze between your knees. Inhale arch, Twisty, Face point up towards the ceiling. Exhale to round. Or more of those in your own time. Again, Just following your own breath. Coming back to your tabletop. Now let's come into a little bit of a challenge and with this one we're going to be. . . Firing up the core muscles a little bit more. It also challenges us to remain focused when we're a little bit unstable, Maybe. So reach your right arm forward, Left leg back. As you inhale, Lift your right arm up and your left leg. Leg up. Then as you exhale, Bring the elbow to the knee. Right elbow to left knee, Rounding the spine, Look towards the floor. Inhale reach look over your right hand Exhale round. Inhale reach. Exhale to round. Then inhale, Come back to all fours. We'll do the other side. So left arm forwards, Right leg back. Inhale, Lift, So both are parallel off the floor, Not kind of coming into a banana, But parallel off the floor. Exhale, Round, So left elbow comes to right knee. Inhale, Reach. Exhale round. Inhale to reach. Exhale to round I think we need to do one more. Inhale, Reach. Exhale, Round. Inhale, Coming back onto all fours. Let's come into a child's pose just for a moment of rest. So hips come towards your heels. Reach your hands forwards, Forehead comes down towards the floor. Resting your body here. This one's a really nice shape as well to feel that big expansion across the ribcage. Feeling into the side of the ribcage, The back of the ribs. Feeling that big expansion. Allow your belly to stay pretty steady. Now as you inhale, Come back up onto all fours. We're going to gently come into a down-facing dog. So tuck your toes under, Sit your hips back. Gently lift your hips up. Straightening the knees as best you can you want to reach your hips all the way back as far as you can Maybe pedaling through the feet so bend and straighten just one leg at a time paddling through your feet just kind of warming up and loosening underneath your feet but also the back of the ankles, The calf muscles. Find a bit of stillness and again really reach your hips back far as your knees can stay bent let's take a breath here Our drishti, Our gaze point here in down facing dog, In the traditional sense, Is towards the navel. So you're looking towards the navel in Sanskrit, Which is called nabi drishti. However, Sometimes that can be a little bit uncomfortable. So if it's more comfortable for you, Look in between your feet. Just find the point right in the center and keep your eyes focused there. Take one more breath here As you inhale, Walk your feet to the top of the mat. Let's come into Malasana, A squat pose. So bring your feet kind of to the outer edges of your yoga mat and then sit your hips down. So as with Malasana, You can have your toes pointing outwards. Your heels also do not have to be on the floor. We're not going to be here for very long, But if for more stability you would like to put a rolled-up towel or another yoga mat underneath your ankles just for a bit of support, You're welcome to. Otherwise, Upper arms come to the inside of your knees. Bring your hands together. Hands together in a prayer. Squeeze in with your knees as you press out with your upper arms. It really allows your spine to be nice and long. Shoulders stay down and away from your ears. Keep your gaze focused forwards. Ardrishti for this one. It's just on the floor right in front of you. Then you have a choice for another two breaths. You can stay exactly as you are or come into a bit of a side body stretch. So with this one, You place your left hand down. Inhale to reach your right arm up towards the ceiling. Drishti, Gaze point up towards your right thumb. Exhale your right hand down inhale your left thumb up look up towards your left thumb exhale your left hand down take a breath here just in the center And then as you inhale, We're going to slowly come all the way up. So we'll slowly come up through a ragdoll. So place your hands in front of you if it's going to help with stability. Otherwise, If you're brave, You can just come straight up. So lifting the hips up. Take hold of your elbows once you're ready. Keep your knees generously bent here in your ragdoll. It's actually better for your lower back that way. It doesn't mean it's less effective. It's just better for your lower back if the knees are bent. Really allow your upper body to hang over your lower body and see if you can spend a couple of breaths here just really feeling into your breath. Let go of your elbows. Press down with your big toes. Slowly come up one vertebra at a time. Head comes up fast. And then step your feet together at the top of your yoga mat. From here we're going to come into a sun salutation. This one is like a flowing movement of different postures. Each one with a different breath cue, Each one with a different drishti. Nice one to play with. Bring your feet as close together as they can go or want to go today. Spread your toes so your toes really feel strong into the ground. Tadasana, Mountain pose, Or actually in Ashtanga, We call this one Samasitihi. As you inhale, Raise your arms all the way up. Look up towards your thumbs. I just need up towards your thumbs. As you reach your hands up, See if you can lift your ribs up and out from your hips. Exhale fold forwards your knees can be bent or straight As you inhale, Look forward. You can bring your hands to your shins and look forward. As you exhale let's come all the way to the floor so exhaling bring your hands down you can either come to all fours Or you can come to a plank pose. Either way you want to have your shoulders over your wrists. Once again, As you exhale, Come all the way down. So bring your knees down, Chest and chin down. And as you inhale, You have a choice. You can either take a baby cobra, Just sending your elbows back, Or provided you have no low back issues and things like that, You can come into upwards facing dog. So hips are off the floor, Legs are nice and strong. And then either option you've taken, Exhale, Sit back, Even into a child's pose. Or come back to a down facing dog. We need to take five breaths. In whichever option feels right for you today. Whichever one you feel brings you a little bit of focus. Some of us, Sometimes in order to focus the mind, Sometimes we need exhaustion and sometimes we need grounding. So it's kind of really feeling into what's working for you today. Both of these postures are grounding but just one of them is a bit more active than the other. Let's maybe take one more breath. Either option you take it in. And then as you inhale, Once again, Inhaling into the side of your rib cage, We're going to make our way to the top of the mat. So if you're in child's pose, You might want to come up to all fours first. And then you can either walk your feet forwards one foot at a time, If you want to take a little bit of a. . . A risk and take a jump, Just bend the knee. Pop your feet forwards, Feet together. Come up halfway. Exhale and fold. Inhale reaching your arms all the way up towards the ceiling. Exhale your hands down. Let's come into Trikonasana, The triangle pose. Tap your right foot out to the side. Arms come out to the shoulder level, Turn your right toes out, The left toes will turn in just slightly. As you exhale, Reach your right side. Bring your hand down to your shin, You can come to a block if you have one. Or your ankle, Maybe top of the foot. And then look up towards your left arm. So here our drishti is ideally the left arm. If you're finding looking up is a little bit tender on your neck, Then you can look forward and again just find somewhere to focus your gaze towards. Five breaths here If you're quite bendy you can also take your two-piece fingers and hook onto your right big toe here. As you inhale use your inhale to come all the way up. Swap your feet, Right toes in, Left toes out. As you exhale, Reach to your left again. Hand comes to shin, Ankle, Block, Or hook on your big toe. And look up towards your right thumb. If I didn't say so on the other side, You're welcome to bring a very gentle bend to this left knee. However, You don't want to come so far into it that we come into a different posture. So if you're feeling like you need to bend your knee a lot, Then I would say just bring your hand up slightly higher. As you inhale, Come all the way up. Turn both feet to face the front. Bring your hands to your hips. We'll come into Praderita Padottanasana or Wide Leg Forward Fold. So as you inhale, Open your chest. Exhale, Fold forward. Your hands can come to shins or down to the floor. With this posture, You can bend your knees as much as you like, Really, Particularly if you've got any kind of hip tension or low back tension. It can feel really nice to bend the knees a lot. Spread your toes. As you inhale, Just look forwards. Then as you exhale, Fold down. If your hands are on the floor you can play around with walking your hands perhaps. And again, This one's a really nice one to kind of almost find this hollowing out of the lower belly. So drawing your navel back towards your spine, Allowing your ribs to stay inward, And again, Breathing into the sides of the rib cage. Softening your shoulders. As you inhale, Look forwards. As you exhale, Just stay there. And then from here we're going to come into a gentle twist. So you can either keep your hands on your shins for this one or place your left hand right in the middle in between your feet. Bring your right hand to your hip. As you inhale, Look to the right. Look up towards the ceiling maybe. If you want to, You can inhale the right hand all the way up. So again, It can be left hand on the floor, You can have your left hand on your left shin instead. Look up towards your right thumb. Exhale the right hand down, Swap over. So either right hand will come to right shin or to the floor in the middle. As you inhale, Look up towards your left thumb. As you exhale, Lower the left hand down. Just take a breath there to find some balance to the right and left side of the spine after that twist. And then as you inhale, Look up, Bring your hands to your hips and then come all the way up. Exhale when you get to the top. And then inhale coming back to the top of your yoga mat. While we're here, Let's do a gentle little balance. It's kind of a cross between two postures. A cross between Utkatasana and a balancing posture. So Utkatasana is our chair pose. So I'll give you a couple of options for this one. Feet come together. Squeeze your knees together almost like you're trying to hold a piece of paper between your legs. As you inhale, Sit your hips back and reach your hands up. We're going to hold this for five. And then we'll experiment with lifting one foot off the floor. So lifting the right foot up. And then lifting the left foot up. Okay so we're going to lift each foot just for a count of five not for five breaths so squeeze your inner thighs together inhale sit your hips back reach your hands forwards or up our drishti our gaze point for this one is traditionally up towards the thumb However if it's more comfortable, Look forwards. Two more breaths here. And then again, We'll hold each side for a count of five. So as you inhale, Lift your right foot off the floor for one. Two look forwards three focus your gaze four and five exhale lower down Inhale the left foot up for one. Sue. Three, Four. And five exhale the left foot down fold forwards inhale come up halfway come hands to chin Exhale, Step back either to all fours or to plank pose. And lower all the way down. Inhale once again, You can find baby cobra or upwards facing dog, So hips come off the floor. Exhale, Come to a down facing dog. You can come via all fours or just roll over your toes like I just did. And then when you're ready, Inhale and come to a seat. So you can do that however you like. You can bring your knees down, Swing your legs around, Sit your hips back. Or take a little jump forward if you'd like to. Legs are out straight. Come into a forward fold. So hands come either side of the hips. With our forward fold, Flexing both feet back towards your face. You can bend the knees if you'd like to, But keep your feet flexed if you're doing that. Lengthen your spine. And as you exhale, Fold forward. Hands can come to shins, Ankles, Or again, You can take your peace fingers and hook onto your big toes. Inhale, Look up. Exhale, Fold down. So our drishti, Our gaze point for this posture, Is actually towards your toes. When we're looking towards the toes here, It enables the spine to lengthen almost towards that space. Instead of looking down, Rounding into it. Look forwards and lift yourself towards it. And take maybe three more breaths here keeping the lower belly pretty still breathing into the side of the rib cage and if you've lost it bringing back that Darth Vader bringing back that Ujjayi Then as you inhale, Look up. As you exhale, Release your toes or release your legs. Purvatanasana. We're going to bring the hands behind us. Fingers facing towards your feet. Point your toes this time. We'll do a modified version of our Purvatanasana. Roll your shoulders back, Lift your chest high and look up towards the ceiling here. So we're squeezing the shoulder blades together to lift the sternum, That flat bone in the middle of your chest, Forward and tilt the pelvis forward as well. Looking up towards the ceiling. And then as you inhale gently come all the way up. We'll finish with a kind of extended Barakonasana, Just to kind of slowly calm the mind a little bit. So bend your knees. Open your knees out to the sides. Hands come to shins or ankles. Lengthen your spine. And then as you exhale, Roll forwards. Keep your spine nice and long for as long as you can. Then round your upper back. We're just going to do five breaths here. I know this one is a favorite posture in our yin yoga classes, But today we're doing it in a bit more of an active way. So with this one you can press the soles of the feet together. If your feet are a bit closer, You can open your feet almost like a book. Otherwise, Keeping that connection to your lower belly and keeping the breath higher into the rib cage. And as you inhale, Press the soles of your feet together so you feel your legs activate. Slowly coming all the way up. Take your knees from the outside, Bring your knees together, Then just cross your legs. Crossing the legs as we come to the end of the practice we're just going to take a moment to sit here You have options. You can come into a simple legs crossed or if you are maybe a little bit more open in your hips, You could take a half lotus or a full lotus if you'd like to. Otherwise, Bring your fingers into chin mudra. So that's thumb and first fingers together. The other three fingers stay straight. Shoulders down and relax. The wrists are up towards the ceiling. So the backs of the hands or the backs of the forearms will be on your knees. Look down towards your chest. So I drift these down towards the chest. Continue breathing into the side of the rib cage. We're going to take 10 breaths here. And then once you're ready, We're going to finish the practice today with a few rounds of Nadi Shodnat Pranayama. This is one we do pretty often, Alternate nostril breathing. So we're going to do five rounds, Inhaling through the left nostril, Exhaling right, Five going the other way. Those who've done this with me loads of times will know it very well. But if you haven't, Then take your right hand, Your two-piece fingers come down towards your palms. You'll use your thumb to block the right nostril, Ring fingers to block the left. Block, We'll take a bill exhale first. Then block your right nostril, Fully inhale to the left. Lock your left nostril with your ring finger fully exhale to the right. Then block your right, Inhale left. Exhale right. Inhale, Left. Exhale, Right. Inhale left. Exhale, Right. Inhale left. Exhale, Right. Now keep your hands as they are, Inhale right. Exhale left. Inhale right. Exhale, Lift Inhale right. Exhale, Lift. Inhale right. Exhale left. And last one, Inhale right. Exhale left. Relax your right hand down. Soften back into just breathing normally you can let go of that ujjayi you can let go of the awareness around the rib cage Take a moment just to feel grateful towards yourself for showing up today for your practice, Cultivating a little bit of focus. We're starting to learn a little bit more about how we find focus through movement.