Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / A Daunting Week Ahead? Take Ten Minutes | Morning Yoga
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. James: If the day ahead of you looks like a week and the week ahead of you seems impossible, take ten minutes. Hello friends, welcome to your daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Be sure to practice till the end, we'll pull a card, we'll set a little intention together for the day. And of course, be sure to like and subscribe. Come to sit on your mat. I'm coming cross-legged. if you feel like your hips are tight and you want to sit up on a block, you can. Just make sure you feel your sitz bones firmly rooted. Bringing your hands onto your knees. Lift your heart. Look up. Press down in your seat. Inhale. Exhale round your spine like cat. This time sit up tall, float your arms overhead. I'm thinking about lengthening my waist by pressing down in the seat, and you might see my shoulders come up, but I'm not pushing my shoulders up. Instead, I'm just lengthening, lifting. Inhale. Exhale, take a twist to your right. The left hand crosses over, right fingertips come behind. Sit up taller and then use that left hand like you're gently pushing the knee forward. Look over your right shoulder. Inhale. Exhale. And then come back up through center. Float the arms and twist the other way. Again, using that right hand. I'm using it as traction. If you've never heard me say this, anytime your body's in contact with itself, that deserves special attention. I got that from my teacher, Dana, and I like it a lot. Inhale. Exhale. Back to center, float the arms, and this time just tend the fingertips forward, a little tucking under the tailbone, look forward, inhale, exhale, have a little bow Make your way to sit. Step your feet on the floor. Plant your feet so they're about hip width distance apart. And plant your palms under your shoulders. Press down your heels, lift your hips, adjust if you need to. So reverse table. I'm keeping my chin tucked for now. And then I'll slowly let it fall back to see where it wants to stop. It's first thing in the morning after all. Inhale. Exhale, bring your hips down between your feet. I'm sorry, between your hands, and then float your feet. Boes. Look up, past your toes, maybe pick up your hands. Inhale. Exhale, set down your hands and feet. We'll do that again. Press down in the heels, lift the hips. Let the head fall back only if it feels good. Inhale. Exhale lower down, hips between the hands. Inhale both poses. Just waking up the core, activating the spine. One more time. Plant the feet, plant the hands, lift the hips. Inhale. Exhale lower. Also, some nice shoulder opening happening there. Float the feet. This time cross the shins. Hug the knees in. Think about really rounding your spine, compressing everything. I'm gonna grab my pinky edges of my feet. Come to all fours. Set up your plank, wrap those elbows under, shoulders forward of your wrists, step back, inhaling, exhale, lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Inhale, kobo pose. Keep your toes tucked, send your hips to your heels. Roll forward the plank, lift the knees, downward facing dog. Adjust if they need if you need adjusting, pedal out your heels, shake out your head, check in with your down dog. Walk your hands back to your feet. I'm gonna separate my feet a little bit wider and come into a malasana squat. Press down in the heels. Lift up through the pelvic floor. If your heels aren't on the mat, just don't go as low. or do your or step your feet wider, making a wider stance makes that easier to inhale as you exhale, plant your palms, lift your hips, and then I'm just gonna parallel my feet and roll myself to stand. And then step my feet together at the top. Mountain pose, be your at the back of your mat. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, walk yourself forward to plank. Exhale, lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Cobra pose. Inhale. Tuck your toes, hips to heels. Exhale. Inhale, roll forward to plank. Exhale, down, dog. Separate your feet. Walk your hands back. Malasa squat. Come to stand. Really getting into the spine and the hips with this little sequence. One more time. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, bow. Inhale, walk out. Exhale, maybe chattaranga. Upward dog or cobra. Still gonna tap back to a child's pose. Roll forward to plank. Downward dog. Walking my hands back as I inhale. Separating my feet, malasana, exhale, press down, rise up, inhale, mountain pose, exhale. Firm your left foot down, pick your right knee up. Give that right knee a little hug. I'm gonna roll out the ankle a little bit. Especially if you are someone who has to walk a lot and you don't always get to wear the best shoes. A little tightness in that heel and ankle is very normal. Figure four chair. Have a seat. My hands are coming to prayer. You can take overhead. Inhale. Exhale, come all the way down, rise up with that right knee floated. Now I'm gonna take a down dog split. I'm sorry, not down dog split, a standing split, apologies. With my hands coming to the mat, my right leg high. If that seems crazy, you can set your right foot on the floor. No big deal. Then walk out to your plank just like before. Maybe keep the right foot floating. Take a vinyasa. Downward facing dog. Inhale. Exhale. Down duck, split the right leg, step the right foot between your hands, high lunge, inhale, exhale, warrior two. Inhale, straighten the right leg, triangle pose, get into those inner thighs, look up, reven the right knee, warrior two, cartwheel that hand down, step the right foot back, take a vinyasa. Once in your down dogs, separate your feet, walk your hands back. Come through your malasana. Rise up. Feet together. Shift your weight to your right foot. Float that left knee. Finding the balance. I'm gonna give the knee a hug and just make some circles here. Feels nice on the ankle, even on the sole of the foot, because my toes can't help but get involved. Then figure forward chair. Hands in prayer or overhead. Nice stretch in the outside of the left thigh there. Maybe look up. Inhale. Exhale. Come all the way to stand. Hands down to the floor. Standing split. Walk your hands forward. Three-legged plank. Lower halfway, three point chaturanga upward facing dog. Downward facing dog. Walk your hands back. Separate your feet. Malasana. Come all the way to stand. Mountain pose. I left out the warrior too on that side. I got distracted. So let's do that again. Firm your right foot, float your left, figure four chair. Rise up. Inhale. Standing split. Exhale. Walk yourself to plank. Take your vinyasa. Down dog split the left leg. Step the left foot forward. High lunge. Warrior two. Straighten the left leg. Triangle pose. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. We don't always get everything the first time, but at least we'll get it the second. Take your last vinyasa. You all know Max. Walk your hands back. Separate your feet. Sit into your malasana. Come to stand. Mountain pose. Max, you're just in time. Go on up. So you're welcome to lie down, have a little savasana, or sit with me. As we pull a card, set a little intention, have a little reflection before we begin the day in earnest. Let's see what we got. The shape is crow. Practice. Devoted and focused practice leads to mastery. Devoted and focused practice leads to mastery. I've actually been working on crow and side crow in a lot of my in-person classes this past week I was. And probably will continue to do so. We do crow a lot. Is an introductory arm balance. It's a good place to start just building, getting used to standing on your hands or having your weight on your hands. And the thing that's always most surprising to me is that the thing that intimidates us about a lot of these balances, the thing that makes them seem unavailable, is that it's scary. It's fear. When suddenly if you're coming into a crow pose and suddenly your hands are on the floor and you're lifting your hips and you're getting your hips elevated and you just see the floor in front of your face and you feel like you're gonna tip at any moment, first of all, you might. It's okay. But second of all, it's just the repetition. It's just doing it and doing it and doing it until you realize where that point is for you and it's something you have to experience. You can't look at a picture of it and do it. You can't watch a teacher demonstrate it and do it. You have to feel it in your body. That's why we all see these Instagram and TikToks and YouTubes of people who just seem to say, if you want to learn to stand on your hands, do this and then do this and then it's done. And they tell you in 30 seconds, as if it's not a Months, bless you, months or years long practice. A practice that is consistent, that is about showing up. And the more you set up the pose, then the easier over time, the more natural over time it starts to feel. And maybe, maybe that's a metaphor for everything else. Those things that are scary to us, those things that seem out of reach or unavailable. If we just show up, if we just set up the conditions, we make our workspace how we want it to be. We create a day, we design a day that is filled with things that even if we have to do them, even if they're a little daunting, we're equipping ourselves to succeed. And then we do our best. And we keep doing our best. And then eventually, one day when you didn't know it was coming, you float your feet. One day when you didn't weren't quite ready, you stand on your head, you stand on your hands, or you never do, and you've still learned yourself by taking the time to slow down and practice. Lemme know what you think. The light that is in me bows to and honors the light that is in you. Namaste. As always, thank you so much for taking this time. It means everything to me. So let me hear from you. I love it when you all are in the comments. It makes a real difference. So I'm not just saying this stuff into a vacuum. But even if you don't, I'm so pleased and proud. that you've spent this time here on the mat with me. Have a great day. Namaste. James @ Daily Flow: 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.