Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga for Twists, Digestion + Back Release
Transcript
- James @ Daily Flow: Hello friends. Thanks for downloading the audio version of today's 10 minute mornings practice. The YouTube video is linked in the show notes. And if you're staying with just the audio, don't worry about doing it right. Just move and breathe in a way that feels honest. That's enough. a follow or review goes a long way. And of course, you're always welcome to practice live with me on YouTube, 8 a.m. weekdays. James: 10 minutes to ground, energize, and step into whatever the day might hold. Hello, friends. Welcome to your daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. And be sure to practice all the way to the end because we'll draw a card to set intention for the day. Come to stand at the top of your mat. Play your feet a little wider than your hips. Ground down and float your arms overhead. Interlace your fingers and take them behind your head so the index fingers are right at that ridge, the top of the neck, the occipital ridge. And then take your elbows nice and wide and use that to lengthen, to traction your neck. Up, gently. Open the elbows wide. Feel the feet engaged. Inhale. Exhale. Round draw the elbows together. Tuck the tailbone down. Again, inhale, lift, open, lengthen. Exhale around like a crunch or like a cat. Inhale, lift like cow. This time, stay proud like this. Float the arms as the biceps are alongside the ears. Feel those armpits wrapping under and look up. Now knit together your low ribs, firm your feet even more and take a nice wide forward fold. So with the arms going wide, again, the feet are wider than the hips, so we're not coming maybe in quite the same way normally we do. Bend the knees quite a bit and then pull your heart forward. So I feel my belly kind of right between my knees and then lift the hips up. Feel like you're lifting the kneecaps. You can keep your hands on the floor or you can bring them to the shins. Do that again, bend the knees, pull the heart forward, lengthen the spine, inhale. Press down to the feet, lift up through the thighs. Lengthen, exhale. Again, inhale, bend, look forward. Exhale, press down to length. and look forward this time, step the left foot back and walk your hands inside that right foot. So you're in a nice high lizard. Feel the lengthening here. Take a breath and then walk yourself along the left edge of your mat, a true wide legged forward fold. And then walk your hands back. So my hands are traveling off the mat behind me. You'll stop where you need to stop. Maybe it's with your hands. ⁓ parallel with your heels, but try to get your arms straight. So you feel like you're really opening up your back body. Feel the outer edges of your feet. exhale, and then walk your hands forward again. Rise up with a flat back, float the arms over. And then Warrior II, pivot that right heel. Come to a high lunge. So both arms square to the front, peel the left heel up off the floor. Reach the left arm forward and the right arm back. So a sort of T-shape twist. Wrap that left elbow, or left shoulder blade under. Now send your eyes back towards your right hand. Exhale, cartwheel your hands down to frame that right foot. Step the left foot forward to meet it. Find a flat back. Bow deeply. Roll yourself up like a rag doll, one vertebra at a time. And then separate your feet about hip width apart. Floating the arms overhead, interlace fingers. Take them behind at the top of the neck, lengthen on inhale. Find a little crunch on exhale, only once this time. Inhale, lengthen this time, flow those biceps alongside the ears. Fold forward. Find a long spine. And as you bow deeply, step the right foot back, walk the hands inside the left foot. Do what you need to do to adjust to find your nice lizard here. Energizing down into that left foot. Wrapping those shoulders forward. Lifting the right leg, right thigh. So you feel a stretch in the left inner thigh. And then walk yourself along the right edge of your mat, wide legged forward fold. Again, walk your hands back. really working here on releasing through the legs a little bit. I feel it in the outside of my calves and also in the inside, but mainly this is a back release. let your head be really heavy. And as you keep energizing and lifting the arches of your feet, you might dial up the intensity, but nothing should ever hurt. So take another breath and then walk your hands underneath your face. Find a nice long spine, root down, rise all the way up. And then pivot that left heel, Warrior II. Wrapping that left hip under, left thigh rotates counterclockwise. Now high lunge, lift the right heel. Take a nice airplane-shaped twist in that left arm back, right arm forward. Wrap the right shoulder blade under. I really feel that, I can feel that in my breath, because that's the part of my body that's tight in the mornings, my upper back. Inhale here. Exhale, cartwheel hands, deframe the left foot, step the right foot all the way to me. Find a flat back. Bow deeply. Root down, rise up, inhaling. Exhale, mountain pose, keeping your feet together if it's comfortable or apart if that's a better choice. Feeling your feet on the floor, float the arms overhead, inhaling. Exhale, big bow forward. Inhale, long spine. This time, step that left foot back. We'll come to a runner's lunge. So your right hand is between your feet and it's a nice long stride. Rise up to your high lunge. We'll go straight to that twist. Left arm forward, right arm back. Flip that left palm, reach it up and back. Now opening up, staying open through those left ribs. Send the left elbow outside the right thigh. Maybe you stay in that T shape or maybe it's a prayer. Prayer's a little less intense. That's opening arms is a little more intense or having the forearm on the outside of the thigh is less intense still. So you choose where you need to be. Take a breath and then more ear two. Straighten both legs parallel to the feet, float the arms, wide legged forward fold. Find a long spine. Now bend the left knee deeply, skandhasana. Make sure that left heel stays on the floor. I see people shift forward and come to the ball of the foot a lot. If you don't go as low, don't go as low, but get those heels grounded. Take a breath. Now set your left hand beside your right foot. Float the right arm to the ceiling, low revolve lunge. Really feel like you're reaching that right arm back and using the left hand on the mat to pull the mat. Now take that right bicep by the ear and sweep it down to the floor. Step the left foot forward. Long spine. Bow deeply. Root to rise. And then right away we'll fold forward to get the other side, big swan dive. Find a flat back. Step the right foot back. So find your runner's lunge. Take your time. Ground down, rise up. Feel the energy of the feet, the balls of the feet in particular here. And then send the left arm back and the right arm forward for this airplane-shaped twist. Wrap that right shoulder blade under, then flip the right palm, sweep it up and back. Left fingertips might find the right hamstring. Opening up to that right side body. Keep that space. that right arm forward, forward, forward, and then hook the right ⁓ tricep outside the left thigh. And then maybe float the left arm up. any modification. You can even lower that back knee if that's a good choice. Look up. Take a breath, inhaling. Exhaling, let's come to warrior two. ⁓ Inhale, straightens the left leg, pivot the foot. Exhale, wide legged forward fold. Find your long spine. Then skandhasana, think about shifting the weight back into the right heel. Feel that lifting up with the pelvic floor, so it takes a little core engagement to balance here. Now looking at my left foot, I have a nice stretch in the left inner thigh, but instead the right hand beside the left foot. with the left arm up to the ceiling. So really that right hand is pulling the mat and my left foot is keeping me stable because otherwise it would just flop open. So I'm grounding down, looking up. I'll take that left bicep alongside the ear. Sweep it all the way down. Step the right foot forward to meet the left. Flat back. Bow deeply. Roots to rise, inhaling. Mountain pose. Exhaling. Take a pause, have a seat. All of that twisting is really good for digestion, especially first thing in the morning, wake up your metabolism a little bit. And also rings out whatever you're holding onto. So to set our intention for the day, we go, as always, to this yoga oracle deck by an artist named Anthony Salerno. This one looks good. The posture is headstand. Accurate perception. A calm mind sees the world as it is. Accurate perception. A calm mind sees the world as it is. One of my favorite things about inversions like headstand, handstand, forearm stand, is that you have a different perspective. You see the same world in a different way. Sometimes we close our eyes and grid our teeth. when that comes up, but opening your eyes anytime you're upside down might give you a new view. Also, accurate perception doesn't mean negative perception. Accurate perception means seeing things as they really are, what's going well. Where do you place your attention? On the catastrophe or on the calm? If you're in your calm mind, you'll see the calm. If you're in your catastrophe mind, you'll see the chaos. They're both there. Allow them both to be there. But make sure you're not ignoring the good stuff. Let me know how that goes. Be sure to leave a comment or shoot me an email. Gathering hands to heart center, take a deep inhale and exhale. The light that is in me bows to honors and is very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. As always, thank you for spending this time with me. Be sure to subscribe and like and leave comments and all of those things. It helps to build our community and is very meaningful to me personally. Our channel is growing. Our family is growing little by little, which is right. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for spending this part of it with me. See you tomorrow.