Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga: Create Space Without Losing Strength
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. 10 minutes to wake up, take your place and take your space in your day. Hello friends. Welcome to this daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Come to sit. ⁓ We're start in Baddha Konasana or Cobbler's Pose. Soles of the feet together. Get nice and tall now. ⁓ I'm fairly open here, I can get my heels pretty close, but if you need to keep yours a little further away, that's also fine. And hold your ankles gently, pull your heart forward, so feel your seat grounding down, and then maybe a little gentle pressing down in the elbows. Lift the heart, inhale. And then round the back like cat, exhale. Inhale, sit up nice and tall. Exhale round. Inhale lengthen. Exhale round. Extend your right leg forward. Bring the sole of the left foot into the inside of the right thigh. Flex the right foot, point your heart towards that right pinky toe and float your arms, setting up for Jnana Sharasana. Pull your heart forward, forward. Now it's early morning and a lot of us have really tight hamstrings, so don't feel like you have to reach your foot. You can plant your hands on the floor beside you. Maybe they're beside the shin or the ankle. Do what you can to square your heart more over the center of the leg. Just lift a bit, inhale. Exhale, go further forward. Bring your attention to your seat. So think about that pelvis probably wants to rock forward. See if you can keep it rocking back so you feel a little scooping out of the belly. A lot of us have tight hamstrings if you sit a lot for your work or just for living in 2026. Hamstrings constrict because you're telling your body, I wanna sit. I need short hamstrings to do that. So we're just opening it up a little bit here to start. Make your way back up to sit. Plant both feet flat on the floor. Plant your palms underneath your shoulders and lift up your hips to a reverse table. Now keep your chin tucked until your knees disappear behind your hips. If you can do that, if you can get this high, then maybe you let your neck go back. But listen to your neck. Let it tell you if that's okay. And then lower down. and float your feet so you're coming to a boat pose. You can keep the knees bent or straighten them. You can keep your hands planted or float them. But if you find yourself rounding into your low back, then take your fingertips beside you to open up the chest. Inhale. Exhale, set down the right foot, step the left foot over the right leg, sit up tall, setting up for seated spinal twist. Float the arms up, and I'm just gonna wrap my right elbow around the left thigh and send my left hand behind me. Inhale, get tall. Exhale, twist a little more deeply. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, twist. And then coming back to center, let that left knee fall open, but the left ankle ⁓ is crossed at the right knee, so I can step that right foot in like a pigeon. Still my hands under my shoulder, sitting up nice and tall, opening up the outer, outside of the left thigh. Breathe. And then untangle all of that. Lengthen your legs, find your staff pose. Step the right foot in. Give it a nice hug and then let the knee fall out to the side for your Jnana Svarasana, pointing your heart towards the pinky toe of your left foot. Float the arms, inhale. Exhale, heart forward, forward, forward. Breathe, already starting to get a little warm, a little heat going inside the body. We're here for about four breaths. Again, think about still being on the back of your sits bones a little bit here. Feel the thigh plugging up into the hip space. And then make your way up to sit. Plant both feet flat on the floor. Lift up to that reverse table or alter. Maybe the head falls back, maybe not. Little squeeze of the glutes, opening up the shoulders. And then lower down and come into your boat. Float the feet. Again, the low back is long because you're anchored in the feet. Knees can be bent or straight. No rounding that low back though. Open up the heart. Inhale. And then set the left leg down, step the right foot over the left, sit up tall, setting up for your seated spinal twist. Float the arms overhead, get nice and long, so I'm using this to find the length of my waist, and then wrap that left elbow around the right thigh, take the right hand behind. Inhale as you get taller. Exhale as you go little deeper into your twist. Inhale. and come back to center. Let the knee fall open. Take that little ⁓ seated pigeon moment. Feel the outside of the right thigh. Lift the heart. Breathe. and untangle all of that. This time I'm going to lean back, cross the shins and roll forward. So now I'm coming to plank position and then Downward Facing Dog. So Down Dog is a nice hip opener. Bend your knees, let your heels come off the floor and see if you can send your ⁓ belly towards your thighs and then start to gently lengthen the legs down or the heels down. Feel that opening in the hamstrings. Now careful not to hyper-extend. There's still that little tuck of the tailbone. Breathe. Inhale, roll forward to plank. Exhale, downward facing dog. Inhale, plank. Exhale, down dog. Inhale, plank, roll forward. Exhale, down dog. This time, lift the right leg up, down dog split, inhale. Step that right foot all the way between the hands. If it doesn't make it, just grab the ankle and bring it up. Release the left knee down and tuck the left toes. I'm tensing my fingers beside me on the mat. Now, if that's not available to you, can put your hands up on something like ⁓ blocks or books or anything that brings the floor up a little higher. Pull the heart forward, bend the knee, the right knee a lot. So you feel a nice little stretch in the inner thigh, a little bit ⁓ as well in the left hip flexor. I'm coming to a half split. Straighten the right leg, flex the right foot. Let your hands walk back as much as they need to. So this might be a lot. You might bring your hands beside you. You might bring your hands up to blocks. I'm just sending my hips back and my heart forward. Re-bend the right knee, Crescent Lunge, Anjaneyasana. Inhale. This time, straighten the right leg. See if you can keep the arms floated and then send the heart forward. Plant the palms as close to the front foot as you can, the right foot in this case. Shift your weight forward, tuck the left toes, lift the left knee. Let's turn this into pyramid pose. So now I'm anchoring down in the back of my left foot, which is firmly grounded like a warrior pose. I'm wrapping the hips under. Feel the outer edge of that left foot. Feel the ball mound of the right. Let's turn this into triangle pose. Right hand to the right shin, left arm to the ceiling. Open up, unfurl, inhale, exhale, re-bend that right knee, float the arms, warrior one. Let's step back to a down dog. We'll do those things on the other side. Down dog split the left leg. Step the left foot. all the way between the hands. Release that right knee down, untuck the right toes. And again, bend the left knee deeply, pull the heart forward and up. You're firming down into the foot, into the hands. Breathing into the groins and the hip flexor. and then start to press through the left heel, flex the left leg, coming to your half split. Feel free to walk the hands back here. Feel free to come more upright. Feel free to grab those blocks. None of us is perfectly symmetrical. I still have my right toes tucked because that makes this a little easier to balance for me. We're coming back to our crescent lunge. So re-bend the left knee, untuck the right toes, float the arms. Wrap those elbows under, wrap those shoulder blades under. Feel the firmness of your feet. Inhale. Exhale, straighten that left leg. Send the arms forward. I tuck the right toes to help me get me balanced. And then re-bend the left knee, walk your hands forward. Lengthen the left leg. Pyramid pose, you're folded over your straight left leg. Use all the blocks you need. Use, put anything under your hands. You can even lightly rest your hands on that left shin. Just no pressure on it. Keep the tailbone tucking under. Triangle pose, left hand to the left shin, right arm up. Downward dog. Walk your feet to your hands. Roll yourself to stand. Give those shoulders a nice roll back, hands to prayer. Taking this moment as we always do to see the day as it unfolds before us. How will you take up space? How will you feel the openness that you offer in every setting? The light that is in me bows to honors and is very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste.