Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga to Open, Ground & Reset
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 open, ground, and energize into the day. Hello, friends. Welcome to your daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Come to stand at the top of your mat. Stepping your feet together if it's comfortable. Inhale, just float your arms overhead. See if you can press your palms together, but keep the index fingers pointing out. I always think of here is the church, here is the steeple. And then as you ground down in your feet, see if you can lengthen your waist. Now if your shoulders are a little tight and you want to keep your hands further apart, that's okay. And then take a little side bend to your right. Send those index fingers towards like two o'clock. And then as you do, see if you can spiral your chest up, squeeze your thighs so that your low body is ⁓ really stable and firm. Breathe into those left ribs, inhale. Exhale. And then rise up through center. I'm gonna change my interlace so that the other thumb is on top, index finger still pointing up. And then lean to the left. Feel like you're reaching for 10 o'clock and then wrap the left shoulder blade under, look up underneath your right arm. Inhale. Exhaling. Rise up through center and then bow forward like a big swan dive. Keep a little bend in your knees and see if you can take your fingertips on the floor or on blocks or ⁓ whatever. And then cross your ⁓ left foot behind your right and see if you can squeeze the outer edges of your feet together even as you press down into the balls of your feet. This is a big opening up through the low back. through the IT band. It should feel nice. Again, if you need to put your hands up on something, you're welcome to do that. Inhale, exhale. And then I'm going to go ahead and step that left foot all the way back and release the left knee down. Untuck the left toes and come to your crescent lunge, interlacing fingers on top of the right thigh. If you have any knee pain at all, sometimes it's nice to cushion it up. However, if you press down into the top of the left foot, rather than resting on your knee, if you're energizing down, it does take a lot of pressure off. And it might feel nice. Lifting the heart, peeling the belly up and away from the strong right leg, and maybe you float the arms. Inhale. Exhale, bring your hands down to frame that right foot. Tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, and then down dog split the right leg. So push the floor forward and away, float that right leg up and back, internally rotating the right thigh. So the right pinky toe points to the earth and the hip stays closed. Inhale. And then as you exhale, bring the right knee outside the right wrist, setting up for a pigeon. Walk the left knee back. It's early days, so if it's a little early for you to be in a full expression of pigeon pose, that's fine. Feel free to roll up a towel or something underneath that right hip. Breathing into the right outer thigh, lifting the heart. Again, there's another one. If you have low back stuff, it's really good. Inhale. And then go ahead and release the right hip down to the floor. Step the left foot all the way around so the left foot steps over the right leg. Feel firm in your seat and then extend the right arm forward and just wrap it around that left knee. Look back over your left shoulder. Inhale. Exhale. Release all of that, take a little counter twist over to your right. Step your left foot forward and then see if you can come with your hands on the floor. Step the right foot to meet the left. Find a flat back. Bow deeply. Root down, rise up, inhale. Interlace fingers, index finger stay to the ceiling. Lean to your left. Look up underneath the right arm. Feel the opening of the right side body. Inhale. Exhale, rise up, change the interlace so the other thumb is on top, lean to your right. Look up underneath the left arm, inhale, exhale. And now rise up, separate the hands, fold forward, keep a bend in the knees if you'd like. And then cross the right ankle behind the left. See if you can get the feet all the way together. If that's too much, just do your best. and then try to firm the feet down. It's a really nice deep stretch and it'll feel different than the other side. Mine does at least. I feel it traveling all the way up the outside of my right leg, but it feels good. There's no pain. Inhale. Exhale. And then go ahead, set the right foot back. Release the right knee down. Untuck the right toes. As you bring the interlace the fingers up on top of the left thigh, feel the pressing down of the right foot, which takes pressure off the knee and also wakes up the leg and the core. And I'm energizing down to the left foot as well, peeling my heart back. And then maybe you fold your arms if you'd like. Inhale. Exhale, bring your hands to frame that left foot. Tuck the right toes and lift the right knee. And then left leg goes up and back, down dog split. Internally rotating that left thigh. Feeling the left pinky toes point straight to the earth. Lift up, pull your weight back. Inhale. Exhale, left knee just outside the left wrist. And then walk the right knee back a little bit. I'm staying really upright here. You don't need to fold forward unless you really want to. Maybe give a little manual external rotation of that left thigh so you get a little more opening. Nice and long, slow steady breaths. And then release the left knee down, step the right foot all the way over. See if you can feel both sits bones on the mat as well as the firmness of the left foot. Extend the left arm, wrap left ⁓ elbow around the ⁓ right knee. Take your twist to the right. X. and come back to center, little counter twist to the left. And then step that right foot forward, shift your weight, come all the way to stand, bring left foot to meet right, forward fold. Inhale, long spine. Exhale, bow. Inhale, rise. Exhale, lean to your right. Inhale, stand tall. and lean to your left. Rise up, separate the hands, big bow forward. This time straight away, step the left foot back, lower the left knee down. Come to your crescent lunge. And then bring hands to frame the right foot. Tuck the left toes, down dog, split right leg. Inhale. Come to your pigeon. Right knee just outside the right wrist. Lengthen the left leg back and tuck the left toes. Inhale. Exhale, release that right hip down, step the left foot all the way around. Seated spinal twist, float the arms and either hug the knee or take the elbow outside the thigh. Get taller, inhale. Twist a little deeper, exhale. Inhale, rise up. This time, step that left foot forward. Shift the weight. Standing split, right leg high to sky. And then right away, step the right foot way back. Release the right knee down, untuck the right toes. Crescent lunge. Float the arms. Inhale. Exhale, bring hands to frame the left foot. Tuck the right toes. Down dog split, left leg. Inhale, exhale, left knee just outside the left wrist, noodle the right knee back. Inhale, exhale, release the left hip, step the right foot all the way around. Float the arms, take your twist, whatever variation you're choosing. Inhale. Exhale. You now release the twist, step that right foot just a bit forward, shift your weight forward, standing split, left leg goes up and then bring the feet together. Let's finish it up, row down, rise up, interlace fingers, take a side bend to your right, up through center, side bend to your left. up and then hands to your sides and to heart center. pausing here as we always do just for a moment. As you step off the safety of the mat and into the world, how will you arrive? We can't control a lot. We can control how we talk to others, how we talk to ourselves. So what will you choose? The light that is in me bows to honors and is so grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste.