Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Move Anyway: 10-Minute Morning Yoga for Stiff, Tired Days
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: Feeling a little tired, a little stiff, and the last thing you want to do is some yoga. Honestly, same. Welcome to your daily flow 10-minute mornings practice. My name is James. Hello, friends. ⁓ be sure to practice till the end because we'll pull a card to help set some intention and grounding for the day. And be sure to hit like and subscribe on your way out. All right, that's done. Come to all fours. Sitting up in your quadruped, ten fingers spread wide. Tuck your toes. Really start to feel like you're not only wrapping your elbows under and shifting your shoulders forward, but you're gripping the mat with those finger pads. Feel this grounding in the support. Pull your heart forward. Lift your chin gently just a little bit. Nice little stretch inhale. Exhale, untuck the toes, really round the spine. Overdo it. Exaggerate the shape. Spread your shoulder blades. Inhale, pulls your heart forward. Exhale rounds. Inhale lengthen. Exhale round. Coming back to neutral spine, step your left foot back. Give that a little saw out. And then extend your right arm forward. Float the left foot. Look at your right hand. So essentially you're in cow pose. Inhale. Exhale. Draw the knee and elbow to touch. Start to find some engagement here. Flex the foot, engage the leg. Inhale. Exhale. Wrap it under. Feel your galute activate a little bit as you lift your left heel a little bit higher. together. Lengthen again, set the right hand down, set the ball of the left foot down, and then float the left arm up. Supported side plate. Maybe roll out that left wrist, maybe float the left foot. And if you're feeling stable here, reach back and capture it with your left hand. If you have to round your spine to hold your foot, I wouldn't. Kick the heel away, open the heart, inhale. Exhale, step that left foot back. We're coming up for gait pose. So you're grounded in that right knee. Feel free to put a cushion, a blanket, a ⁓ towel rolled up or something. Underneath there, if you'd like, bring your left hand to the left shin, flip the right arm up and over. Look up underneath your right arm. Find a stretch down the entire right side of your body. You might imagine like side angle pose, for example. Breathe into those left or right ribs. Inhale. Exhale, cartwheel your hands down to the top of the mat, tuck the left toes and take a down dog split with the right leg. Really flex that right foot. Feel like it's pulling you up and back. If you find yourself opening the hips, see if you can close it off and find a sense of symmetry in this pose, even though your right foot is off the floor. Inhale. Exhale, step the right foot all the way forward. Pull your heart forward and then feel a little lift of your hips as you go further. Inhale. Exhale, start to straighten that right leg like a wide stance pyramid. I'm not worried about getting my left heel to the floor though, and then rebend the knee and come back to all fours. Both knees come to the mat. I'm gonna turn my hands over so the backs of my hands are on the mat and just make some little circles. You can also make and release fists. It just feels good. And then come back to your neutral. That's a good thing to do actually anytime you are feeling a little wrist fatigue from computers and all that stuff. Keep your left knee grounded, step your right foot back, give it a little saw out. Extend the left arm forward like a handshake. Look at that hand. Follow it up and then float the right foot. So these are kind of warm-up poses we do a lot, but feel like they're doing something. Inhale. Exhale, need elbow. Don't just gloss over something because it seems like a transition or a warm-up. Inhale. You'll never warm up if you're not doing it, which makes sense. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, wrap under. Lengthen again. Exaggerate. Set the left hand down. Set the ball of the right foot down. That left shin kicks out 90 degrees. Right arm floats to the ceiling. Give the wrist a little roll out. Maybe float the right foot. Maybe reach back and capture it in your right hand. And if you have that comfortably, kick the heel away. Find your length of your back body. Inhaling. Exhale. Step the right foot back. Set the left hand down. Down dog split the left leg. Again, internally rotate that left thigh. Energy is in the fingertips. Feel that big stretch. Inhale. Exhale, steps the left foot outside the left hand, high lizard. Pull your heart forward. We talk about dropping the hips a lot, but instead focus on energizing the left foot a little, little bit of a lift in the right hip and pull yourself forward and just see if your experience of that is different. Take a breath and then energize the ball mount of the left foot. Lengthen the left leg a bit. It probably won't go all this, it might go all the way straight. Mine's not. Take a breath. And then release the right knee all the way to the mat, bring the left knee to meet. One more round, cat and cow. Excel round. Inhale, come to plank. Exhale, downward facing dog. Walk your hands back to your feet. Pause here. Take a little ragdoll moment. Hold opposite elbows. Sway your hips from side to side. We're coming to our Malassana squats. So step your feet a little wider and sink your hips. Now everybody's experience of this pose is extremely different based on how your hips feel. So if you find yourself up on the balls of your feet, see if you can get wider in your stance and try to ground your heels. You might not go as low, you might be up really high. You can also sit on something like a block. Feel the lift of your pelvic floor, feel those thighs pressing out on their own. Your elbows just support. Take an inhale and an exhale. Taking a twist to the right. So it's in the left hand down and take the right arm up. Draw the shoulder blades together. Really think about making one long diagonal line from wrist to wrist. Inhale. Exhale. Release the twist. Plant your hands and lift your hips. Step your feet together and walk forward to plank. Inhale. Exhale. Lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Cobra pose. Downward facing dog. Inhale steps the right foot forward, come up to a warrior one. Exhale to a warrior two. A really easy, simple flow. Peaceful warrior, flip the right palm, swim it back. Extended side angle pose. You can keep this nice and gentle. Inhale, flying warrior, lift the ball of the right foot. Skandastana, bend the left knee deeply. Come back to your warrior two. Hands cartwheel down, frame that right foot. Peel up the left heel, step the right foot back. Walk your hands back to your feet. Find a flat back. Bow. Separate your feet. Sink into your malasana. Pelvic floor is lifted. Mulabandha is engaged. That's that root lock. And if that feels like an abstract yoga thing, it is a yoga thing. It's not abstract. You can feel that little lifting up. Takes some concentration. Right hand comes down, left arm goes up. Wrap the shoulder blades under, look up, inhale. Exhale, release the twist, plant the hands, lift the hips, stepping my feet a little closer together. Find your nice long spine, walk out to your plank. Lower knees chest chin. Cobra pose. Downward facing dog. Big step forward with that left foot. Rise up, warrior one. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Feel your feet on the floor. Peaceful warrior. Flip that left palm. Extended side angle pose. Come back flying warrior. Skandasana. Warrior two. Cartwheel hands to frame the left foot. Step back. Downward facing dog. Walk your hands back to your feet. Separate your feet about as wide as the mat. Sink down. Take that malasana squat. Inhale. Exhale, hands come to the mat. Fold. Heel toe your feet together. Walk yourself to plank. Take your last vinyasa for now. I took chhataranga. You can take knees, chest. Right foot forward, warrior one. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, peaceful warrior. Exhale, maybe a little deeper to side angle. Reach that right arm forward. This time straight away cartwheel the left hand down, step back to downward facing dog. Step the left foot forward. Warrior one, inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, peaceful warrior. Exhale, cartwheel, hands down. And then step back to your down dog. Come to a child's pose. Knees down, hips back, and breathe. You can stay here for a moment or come to sit. You know, halfway through that I realized we didn't do gate pose on the left. So if you heard me stumble, that's why I stumbled. well. If have a second, do another gate pose. Let's see what inspiration we can find to ground our day. To me, this isn't some big mystical thing. There's something to learn from whatever we happen to pull, but maybe something will resonate with you or with me in a meaningful way. The pose is headstand, accurate perception. A calm mind sees the world as it is. A calm mind sees the world as it is. I love this. One of the things I like about inversions, something that my teacher Mindy says a lot, is that it changes your perspective. If you open your eyes when you're upside down, you're literally seeing the world in a different way. And of course, everything on the mat is a direct mirror of what we need in life. So, as you step into your day-to-day, Especially if something seems challenging, can you turn it upside down? Can you look not for the bright side? It's not delusion. In fact, it's the opposite of delusion. Can you look at things as they truly are? If you're not if you're having a medical issue, how do you feel right now? If you're facing problems at work. What can you do in your job right now? Don't look for the bright side. Look for the truth. The light that is in me bows to honors and is very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you so much as always for spending this time. Please take a moment, if you have it, to like and subscribe and share and hit bell icons and comment, do all the things. I do really love it when I hear from you all. It makes my day. So ⁓ reach out. Let me know if there are special things you'd like to work on or address in your yoga practice, and I'll be sure to include them. Have a wonderful day. Namaste.