In 2011 I worked as a nanny Monday through Friday, I taught creative arts for children part time, rehearsed and performed as a professional actor in the evenings, and taught yoga six days a week to people ranging from toddlers to seniors. (Not all at once.)

I taught in schools, gyms, studios, art galleries, warehouses, theaters, museums, private homes. I led yoga in a backyard for a birthday, on the lawn of the local independent grocer, and outside at the local cafe, Casa De Luz. Passionate about yoga, and inspired to share it with as many people as would hear me out, I was posting frequent invitations on Facebook, through email, and with homemade posters, for friends to come on out and try a practice. 

In March of 2011 I received email correspondence from a friend and indie film collaborator, Chris Sharpe. We had worked with each other on a super fun, fiercely creative, wild ride of a film that never got finished or saw the proper light of apocalyptic day. We were both interested in silent film, both born in September, and both passionate about storytelling. We got along and respected one another since day one of meeting, which was through a virtual audition (ahead of our time) for the aforementioned indie feature, The Spider Babies.

Both eager to achieve and unlock the dream of working and living as full time professional artists, he wrote to me. He included a friendly update on life, as well as a fortuitous (and super secret) proposal for a project.

In September in 2012, Chris and I uploaded this video to a platform I had heard of called YouTube, welcoming whoever would listen to join me for practice. Spoiler alert, not many did. Or at least not right away. But little by little, with a consistent single video offering each week, we delighted in the things we were learning, and the indelible surprise (at least to me) at the eventual growth.

People were tuning in to participate, to connect, to listen, and feel seen.

Heroes. 

A home practice is hard. It’s uncomfortable. It is at times excruciatingly personal. You can stop it, call it quits, cheat on your breath, cheat on yourself, anytime, no problem, super easy, just hit it - turn off and move on.

A home practice is private too. But without the expensive trainer or guru looking down on you. It’s strange, it’s weird, and precarious at times.

But it’s also deep, it’s precious, it’s an emptiness that you and only you can choose how to fill. A structure for you to find wholeness. A practice for living your life. 

Home practice invites you to unite with what matters most. To celebrate your body, your breath, to not cheat or sell yourself short. 

It allows you to ask, “Who am I when no one is watching?”

Your wellbeing is my well being. My well being is your well being. 

This is the essence of Yoga With Adriene, a yoga community that was born a decade ago. 

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Yoga With Adriene we wanted to do something special, something that would mark this moment in time, this YWA era, and inspire us to keep going. I am thrilled and honored to partner with Manduka to create our anniversary collection for the home yoga practice.

Designed and made thoughtfully in tribute to an international community of over 11 million people… and pets. This collection is limited, and intended to live beautifully in your home and your practice space. May you feel the love it was created with and may it support you for a lifetime. 

We have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline this week. Be sure to get your September Yoga Calendar! You will see a month long of celebratory practices - including a brand new free practice perfect for a special occasion.

I am wrapping up two weeks of production on your next 30 Day Yoga Journey. That’s right, we are filming early this year to allow for time and space for family and reflection at the end of the year. 

I am so grateful for the incredible YWA and FWFG team that I get to work with each day. In a lot of ways, they are my family. And I want to honor them the way they honor me by publicly saying thank you. Thank you for the way you show up to work, the way you believe in the impact of our practices, and for always putting community first. 

And thank you dear community, you have and will always be the heart of Yoga With Adriene.

Happy ten years! 

Yours,

Adriene 

PS: The Manduka With Adriene collection will drop on September 1st!

Click here to shop the Manduka X YWA collection

The post 10 Years of Yoga With Adriene appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

Dear Friend, 

Hello from my desk, where I have been working this week with a different kind of focus.

It’s been real, hasn’t it?

I’ve been soaking in all the beautiful Black Excellence, I’ve been taking breaks to run, to walk, or tend to the garden, I’ve been dropping to my knees on my mat, and I have been returning to my desk to WORK.

Right now I am I looking at how to do the work, the inner work, the community work, the hard good, uncomfortable werk that the current climate shift is asking me to show up for - WHILST ALSO showing up on social media in a way that is up to the satisfaction of… all?

Impossible. 

If you only have a certain amount of energy to contribute - be sure it is being allocated to doing the work - and not showing it. 

And, yes, I am talking to myself, but also to you, in hopes that you remember that we are indeed a reflection of one another, and now might be the best time to reinstate that in your daily contemplation. 

In the coming weeks, I am giving myself permission to release the need to respond to everyone. I simply cannot be on every platform each day, every day; in fact, my screen time the past two weeks has tripled. This does not take away from me being a good neighbor, citizen, or leader, nor will this tarnish my contributions, I need time and space to work on these things. Don’t you?

I am not able to do it all at once either, so give me some time. And give yourself the same. 

A reckoning is starting to percolate. 

Long overdue, 

but inspiring still, 

our culture is starting to recognize.

And, I don’t know about you but my quarantine project list has CHANGED, bumping new and even previous ideas to the top of my priority page.

Over the years, I have often recognized and even written about how precious I hold accountability in this Kula. I am the person I am because of this community and the way in which you hold me accountable. And though it can be tough at times, I am grateful.

If you are not following me every platform, if you are not reading every letter, that is okay, but please do not come at me wishing for a full paper on injustice, on cultural appropriation, on silence, or apathy tomorrow. I am lovingly, politely setting a boundary. I am not a corporation, I am a person, and I promise you, I am working. I devote my days to you, to us, often forgetting to tend to myself properly and my relationships at home. 

I am here. Working to transform my intent into impact. 

You have my word. 

And, while I hit it, the yoga videos play on - at no cost -  and this community grows. 

It is with great honor and pleasure that I invite you to join me and our global community on Saturday for a special YWA Live Practice in celebration of International Yoga Day. 

No editing, no scheduled upload, let’s meet on the mat together – in real-time. 

This is a free practice with invitation to donate $1 or more to support childhood cancer research and care.

CLICK HERE to read more and to receive a reminder for this special livestream practice. 

TODAY: our featured video is a 30 min low to the ground Yoga For Runner’s practice. (Great for joggers, brisk walkers, dancers, and bikers too.)

Thirty minutes of practice to allow, release, balance, and restore!

Finally, there is a new FWFG Member’s VLOG up on FWFG Yoga. I hope you enjoy.

See you on the mat, my darlings. 

Yours, 

Adriene

The post Intent Into Impact + International Yoga Day Invitation! appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

It is the first Sunday of the month, and with that, I send you a brand new free yoga practice, fresh from the palpable love press that is my soul.

Today, in alignment with our monthly community theme, I have spent the morning walking with Benji, contemplating courage and what it means to understand courage as a practice of action, of experiment, awareness, and choice. 

My fancy weather app said 89 degrees, but it felt like 98, and as I was walking I tripped over a myriad of emotions, recognizing all the ways in which I am being called to be clear right now.

But in order to get clear, you have to show up for practice, you have to be brave enough to pause.

Because with the pause, a single clear conscious pause, comes an opportunity to try and understand, 

Better.

More.

The internal work: 

This is how we create calm within a storm. This is how we cultivate intention. This is how we show respect for ourselves and for our fellow humans. This is how we evolve and heal and create transformation and change. 

But none of that happens if you are not brave enough to come to class.  

WILL showing up fully evoke vulnerability? For sure. 

CAN it be uncomfortable? Yes.

BUT is it painful? Sometimes, dear, right now, very much so, yes. 

The courage to show up. That is where it starts.

This is a breath-focused fiery practice that invites you to the table. Pull up a chair.

Nurture the body, tend to your heart, balance the brain, find strength, find stillness. 

Get your fill so that when you step off your mat you have the energy you need to be present and serve.

A strong and whole practice will assist you in taking your yoga off the mat and into the world. 

I invite you to contemplate what it feels like to be courageous this week, finding ways to carve out the time to show up for yourself and for others, as well as honoring that pause. 

A pause to sit up tall, to anchor in the breath, a pause that allows you to respond from a true place, rather than just react. 

Get clear. 

I love this quote from Brene Brown,

“Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.”

With this Sunday letter, I send you my love, my respect, and a clear invitation to practice. 

The courage to show up. That is where it starts.

And it starts with you.

And me too. 

I’ll see you on the mat. 

All My Love, 

Adriene

PS: Please save the date and join us for a special live YWA class on Saturday, June 20th at 11am CDT (Texas time.) No editing, no scheduled upload, let’s meet on the mat together - in real-time. 

PPS: Get your Free June COURAGE calendar and playlist HERE! 

The post The Courage To Show Up. That Is Where It Starts. appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

Dear Friend,

I send you my love.

I’ve really wrestled with what to write today. I am struggling with the words.

I have been grasping and grappling for hours now, finally, decided to just begin and to share with you my simple truths.

This is a love letter after all, and my human dignity is soaked in my capacity to love, and what is love if we cannot deeply feel through our truths anyway?

And, the agreement was to share yoga and what is yoga without the recognition of powerful, beautiful, difficult, equitable union?

What is happening in my country doesn’t feel good.

I keep thinking on the depth of this emergency and the fact that we have to come to better terms with the reality of this situation.

Now.

Perhaps, I don’t have the words today, because I want to be a good listener right now.

But I also won’t be silent.

I support my black friends, the Black community, our family, our global Kula.

I am upset, I am uncomfortable, I am disappointed, I am a bit lost, I am weary. And I think it’s important that I share that with you.

However, I am not going to pour my feelings out here, because, I choose to focus on how I can be useful.

I know that I have the privilege of learning about racism vs living it.

And I want to be more useful.

If you feel pulled to seek out resources and ways in which you can better educate yourself to be more useful, do it. Do the work.

But also, take time to sit with yourself. Shall we?

Look inside. Be willing to confront the real honest truths that you feel are inside you, because this kind of honest inquiry…

This is Yoga.

Is this is love,

Is this love,

Is this love

Is this love that I’m feelin’?

Today is the last day of the MAY calendar, and we are signing off with a calming gratitude practice. Take it as an opportunity to notice how you feel, connect to your breath, and move your body.

I am grateful for you and the fact that you are here. Thank you so much for staying with me here, for loving, for growing, and for sharing your practice.

Create some space to say thank you and stay curious about your truths.

JUNE IS HERE along with your FREE YOGA CALENDAR & PLAYLIST!

This month’s free offering is an invitation to connect to and cultivate COURAGE. 

Yoga offers us countless opportunities to practice courage. And courage can come in many forms. These uncertain times certainly call for us to be courageous. I hope you will consider joining us for this special month of practice. 

Read all about it HERE.

Also, there is a NEW meditation practice on the FWFG Membership! In this 10 minute Befriend Your Mind meditation, you are invited to nurture your relationship with your mind as you lean toward a state of quiet and inner peace. 

And finally, it feels like a good time to come together. How about one big International LIVE Class on YouTube? Please SAVE THE DATE for a special community practice, LIVE from my dining room, on Saturday, June 20th at 11am CT TX time - in celebration of the Solstice, International Day Of Yoga, and our amazing community.

To love.

Yours,
Adriene

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
NELSON MANDELA

The post This Is Yoga + Free COURAGE Calendar for JUNE! appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

I hope this love letter finds you.

Period.

In whatever state you are in.

I send you my love and truest regards.

What a week.

Holy Schnikes.

What a world.

And what a time to be alive,

To work together,

To look inward,

To listen,

To see the ways in which we are all the same and the ways in which we can lovingly investigate what makes us different.

What an opportunity to see what the hell we really are capable of embodying.

And because, I really have not said it plainly yet,

What a time to connect to your at home practice.

If there was ever a time to re-energize, re-connect with your willingness to sit with yourself, care for yourself - it could be now.

If there was ever a time to acknowledge that your relationship to the above can have a direct impact on others - it could be now.

In addition to the renewed promise of connecting to one’s self, there is the profound opportunity to engage with the YWA & FWFG community and still connect with others in a fun and meaningful way!

Here is how:

Join us in the FWFG KULA - a free online community site that fosters investigation, celebrates diversity, and promotes regular practice with a healthy dose of philosophy… and fun.

It’s free to join, no credit cards allowed here, and no advertising either. I mean it.

This is a private and safe space for all types to freely learn and engage with - on your terms.

Truly, you can even customize your feed based on topics that serve you! Visit www.fwfgkula.com to get started.

Now would also be a great time to share the Yoga With Adriene YouTube channel with your family, your friends, your communities.

And, for those who want to go a little deeper, join us over at the FWFG membership - where you will find over hundreds videos from power yoga to meditations and docu-style off the mat compilations. Watch the new trailer membership to learn more HERE!

This month, we are also releasing a 4-week wellness journal course with Sarah Bowman called WRITE. Week two releases today with Gratitude Journaling. Click here to explore more or to jump into this series with us!

And finally, today’s featured practice is a 41 minute Yoga For Creativity!

Reach out, grab someone’s hand. Metaphor.

Look inward, sing Love On Top as you wash yours. Really.

Let’s choose to CREATE a sense of peace and togetherness in our days, even whilst we are apart.

For, it could be now that we begin to feel a new sense of wonder about the truth of our oneness.

It could be now.

Yours,
Adriene

PS: Find your free monthly yoga calendar here. #ywaCREATE

PPS: Today is the final day of our HUGE fwfg shop sale before we temporarily close for renovations!

May all that is unforgiven in you be released
May your fears yield their deepest tranquilities
May all that is unlived in you blossom into a future
Graced with love

To Come Home to Yourself, John O'Donohue

If you want to receive letters like this one in your inbox weekly, you can sign up for Adriene's Weekly Love Letters here.

The post It Could Be Now appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear,

in the ancient faith: what we need

is here. And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye

clear. What we need is here._

From The Wild Geese, by Wendell Berry

Dearest Friend, 

I have dropped my pin on top of a small mountain. 

I write to you from this spot, flanked by canyon and vista, held by big West Texas skies. 

Benji, free to roam. 

This morning: a healthy back and forth of Heartless Bastards’ Erika Wennerstrom and Shane Renfro with his RF Shannon Music.

The shoe fits quite well.

I am sore, but the good kind of sore, settling in for a week of writing, planning, reading, and exploring the gifts that the universe tosses my way.

As always, the weekend brings a graciously mandatory assignment to pause and write you, my friend, and to include a fresh new practice.

No charge.

This week: I re-did a video and I want you to know why.

Allow me to take it back.

Just a bit.

When I found yoga as a discipline and philosophy (not just a warm up option before rehearsal), I was on the cusp of turning 18.

This practice guided me through the threshold into adulthood and it’s fair to say it has influenced my life and the way I choose to show up for my life - ever since.

When I found yoga as a discipline and began to digest its rich philosophy, I made a commitment to be the best version of myself that I could be.

Classes like Yoga Sculpt simply didn’t exist around then. 

It could be my perfectionist nature, but I felt deeply called to nail my intention.

Check all the boxes. I wanted to get this thing right.

This concise line became my mantra… long before I shot a YWA video and long before Find What Feels Good. (This mantra birthed, unscripted in our first video.)

Still now, I remember to revive it as I step on the mat.

“Set your intention.”

I choose to be the best version of myself, today.

When I turned 18, I made a commitment to be the best yoga teacher and best version of myself with the grace of each new day. If you don’t believe me, ask any one who knew me then. (I was vocal about it. Still a performer, you know.)

While I continue to evolve and change in contemplation with the world, my practice does too.

And you can bet my teaching style and, now the business, does, as well.

While I would love to re-do many of my videos (and pretty much every role I’ve ever done on stage or screen), I leave it.

In a world of filters and perfect curated edits, I feel it’s more generous to be honest and leave those videos be. Through sickness and in health, bad hair cuts and all. (Let’s not forget the time an accidental f bomb got left in the cut. Ah, the good ol days!)

However, I re-designed a video this week and I want you to know why, because it might inspire you to ask some good questions. 

It could inspire you to raise your awareness and see things you maybe didn’t before. 

Or, it simply may help you soothe something that has been cramping your style.

In 2014 I released a Yoga For Cramps and PMS video for Women. 

In my pink socks I kick this video off with “Hey Ladies” and remark on how this is a special sequence, “just for us go’ils.”

I also make a nice Planes Trains & Automobiles reference in the description, but that is beside the point.

This video is huge, y’all. It has 753,978 views and in the top comment someone suggests I be awarded the Nobel Prize. (Oh, YouTube, how I love ya.)

But, because it really is my wish that this community and this space be one of total inclusion, I want to call a re-do on this one and offer a new practice that respects affirming, neutral gender pronouns. One that reminds anyone watching that I am here to create spaces that feel welcoming and supportive for everyone, and I am fully committed to this. 

As I meditate on the importance of being true to the best version of myself, each day, I want to keep asking myself in what ways can I challenge (my) assumptions. 

How about you? 

As always, I send you my love. I appreciate you. Thank you for sharing your practice with me. Thank you for going with me, for growing with me.

I got your back! This month’s free yoga calendar is going strong. Make the commitment to drop in and EXPLORE this week? Get the details and your free playlist here!


From The Davis Mountains, with love. 

Adriene

The post I Re-Did A Video And I Want You To Know Why appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.

I write to you from Austin, Texas after a week that has felt like a mini marathon… within a month of marathoning. 

I took a quick trip to a very unusually rainy and chilly Los Angeles. I joined adidas and adidas women in a really awesome collaboration with an incredible national organization called Playworks.

The mission of Playworks focuses on harnessing the power of play to bring out the best in kids. They work with individual schools to revamp daily recess to be a safe place for all kids to participate, connect, and stay active in a way that supports everyone.

As a yoga teacher growing a business and a practice behind the mantra “Find What Feels Good” for all the ages, I immediately connected with their work.

It turns out that Playworks schools have 43% less bullying and have more students engaged in vigorous physical activity than before the program. Their structured vocabulary is simple but structured with a relentless focus on positive language… and FUN.

I spent the day learning their vocabulary and playing games with Playworks coaches, Jr coaches, and students at Jefferson Elementary this last Wednesday. I was honored to make eye contact, to give each and every 356 high fives, and to lead a little yoga at the end of the day for both the kids and the coaches, who I admire so much.

The coaches can’t fake it. You have to say what you mean and mean what you say. 

As someone who worked in an after school program called Creativity Club for many years, I know you can’t phone it in. I also worked as a kids yoga teacher from toddler to teens, as a creative drama teacher at a pre-school, and as a Theatre Arts teacher at a private high school. 

For all students, but especially for young people, you have to show up. Fully.

And, it’s my experience that - you want to. 

I always did, and still do.

Our young people need us. Particularly now as we live in the digital, more sedentary age of “You’re over the line, Donny!” screen time.

And in a world of comparison and lack of confidence over self image, we have to look at all the important windows of precious time in which we can counter our culture and step in to support, lift, and help out.

Play.

After recess, instead of going back to class energized, happy, and ready to learn, kids are getting back to their learning environment upset, anxious, and unable to focus. 

Playworks is changing that, one day at a time, also training and inspiring other students. These are the “assistant coaches” who lead the group, their peers, and guide fun physical activity where everyone participates and relates in a positive inclusive way. 

As someone who receives request after request, email after email, and letter after letter for support and gentle assistance for self-confidence, weight gain, lack of energy, loneliness, addiction, depression, and anxiety - I am certain this work is important. 

Here is a fun photo of me with my fellow adidas ambassadors, Angel Mccoughtry (Um, 2X Olympic Gold medalist) and Shavonte Zellous who both play for the WNBA. Talk about an inspiration for young girls in sport…

We were in the classroom on this day due to the crazy LA rain. 

This year, my team and I plan to spend more time with children, more visits in schools (thank you for all the great responses last year) and in general - more energy focused on language, learning, and education.

For kids, yes.

But for all ages too.

It’s never too late. 

Make your decision and harness the power of play to get moving, use your voice, and Find What Feels Good. 

I got your back. 

I love YA!

PS: Dedicate, A 30 Day Yoga Journey is going strong! If you are interested in signing up, click here and dive in with Day 1 anytime. It’s free, it’s fun, and it’s my favorite 30 Day Journey to date.

The post The Power Of Play appeared first on Yoga With Adriene.