Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Monday Morning Yoga for Balance, Dancer Pose & Dharma
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: It's Monday morning and it feels like Monday morning. Hello friends, welcome to your daily flow 10-minute mornings practice. My name is James. Give me 10 minutes. We'll see what we can do to step into the week. And of course, practice till the end. We'll pull a card, set some intention for the day, and hit like and subscribe and bell icons and all of that. Come to stand at the top of your mat. Step your feet together. Float your arms overhead. Nice inhale. Exhale, fold forward like a swan dive. Nice wide, wide, wide arms. Flat back hands to shins. Step back. Plank position. Now set up your plank. Fingers spread wide. Wrap your elbows under, pull your heart forward, and find that little pelvic tilt so the tailbones traveling towards the heels. Look forward and then go straight to down dog. Pike your hips. Pedal out your heels. Maybe shake your head, flutter your lips. Let's get some air moving a little bit. Wrapping those elbows under, see if you can find a little lifting of the wrists. And then let the shoulder blades nestle into their space direction. Your drizdi up towards your navel. Inhale. My heels are not fully on the floor, which they usually are in Down Dong, but my Achilles are tight as first thing in the morning, so are my calves. So I'm opening up and do it just like you. Roll yourself forward to plank and lower your knees onto the mat right away. Extend your right arm forward, float your left foot back, inhale. Exhale, bring the knee to the elbow. Lengthen once more, bend the left knee, flex the left foot to the ceiling, and then reach the right arm back. Now don't when I say reach, don't change your posture. Just see if you can bend the knee and bring the foot to your hand. And if you can't, then that's your cue. Just let the hand down. So focus on where your spine wants to be and work with that. And then start to send that heel up and back and pull your heart forward like dancer. Inhale. Exhale, big step back with that left foot. Tuck the left toes. Down dog, split the right leg. Reach that right heel up and back. Internally rotate the right thigh so the right pinky toe points to the earth. Inhale. Exhale, step the right foot all the way between your hands. Release the left knee down and tuck the left toes. Interlace your fingers on top of that right thigh. Wrap your shoulder blades under. Lean back, lift your arm. Exhale, release the hands down to the mat. Step the left foot ⁓ tuck the left toes and then step the right foot back. Inhale, exhale, lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Cobra pose, press down the abdomen, pull the heart forward. And then tuck the toes downward facing dog. And readjust, pedal out heels, all the things once more, and just observe how do things feel different. This is the one of the things. That makes yoga different from something that's purely physical exercise is that it's about your connection to your body, your experience of your body, more than it necessarily is about athleticism or making specific shapes or holding balances and things. So just send your attention inward. If you need to come to a child's pose for a moment, feel free. Take another breath. And when you're ready, let's meet all f in all four. So release those knees down onto the mat. Extend the ⁓ right foot back and the left arm forward. Okay, nice and long. Inhale, exhale, knee comes to elbow. Inhale, lengthen, bend the right knee, flex the right foot to the ceiling, lift it nice and high, and then swim the left hand back and just see if it finds that right ankle. This side is a little tighter for me, so it felt a little further away, but I didn't have to contort my spine to get there. Lift the heel up, full the heart forward. Look forward. Inhale. Exhale, release that. Step that right foot back. Tuck the right toes. Left leg goes high to sky. Down dog split. Internally rotate the left thigh. Flex the left foot. And as I do that, it actually takes pressure off my wrists because I feel my finger pads and I feel that energy pulling me back in space. More strength in the right leg. And then step the left foot forward, lower the right knee down, untuck the right toes. Interlace fingers on top of the left thigh. Lift the heart. Take a breath. ⁓ And then go ahead, release your hands down onto the mat. Tuck the right toes and step the left foot back. Inhale. Exhale. Lower knees, chest and chin. Cobra. Facing dog. Walk your feet forward to meet your hands. Bend your knees a lot and slide your hands under your feet so that you're standing on your palms. So my toes are in my wrist creases. And you may have to bend your knees a ton to do that. It's fine, you're allowed to bend your knees in yoga. And then use your toes to massage your wrists as you shift your weight back and forth. Let the head be heavy. Then come back into stillness. Keep that connection. Feel how you're belly is against your thighs and then start to lift the kneecaps towards the heels. So I'm by doing that you're gently engaging the quadricep without trying to press anything or force anything. And then tucked the Finding an easy rounding in the low back, but still trying to keep the hip creases deep. Feels really good, or it should. So if it doesn't, adjust. Inhale. Exhale, re-bend the knees. Release the hands. Step your feet together. And then sit into a chair pose. Bend your knees deeply. Flex. Shift your weight to your right foot. Come to stand and float your left knee up with you. Hold your left foot behind you in both hands, like a quad stretch. Think about the knee pressing down, thighs squeezing together, lift the heart. So this internal rotation of thighs pulling together, that's setting up our dancer. Right hand holds the left ankle. Left arm goes to the ceiling. I'm looping my piece fingers underneath my thumb. Start to send the left heel back. And the crown of the head back. Don't worry about the pose. Just think about setting the heel back and keeping the idea of the thighs squeezing together. And then as you continue to do that, you'll start to find some expression of dancer. And it doesn't have to be anything fancy. Mine is certainly not. Take a breath. Come up. Set down the foot. Paddle out your heels. You didn't know you're doing dancer's pose this morning. Shift your weight to the left foot. Pick up the right. Hold it in both hands first. Again, let's set it up little by little. Internally rotate the thighs. So that means I'm literally thinking about turning them and they squeeze together. Press the knee, the right knee down and lift the heart up. You might stay right here. And it counts and it's a nice stretch and it's doing all the things. Maybe you float the right arm up and loop your right piece fingers underneath your thumb. Bicep is alongside the ear. Maybe just send the right heel back a little bit. So if you stop right here, that's great. Knit together those front ribs, let it go back. The crown of the head wants to travel back as well. And it's that everything wanting to go to the back wall that eventually just will guide you into the pose, exactly to where your body's ready. Some folks, your toes might be on your head, and you might even capture the toes in your right hand, which is reaching back. Take a breath. Come all the way up. Set it down. Feel your feet on the floor. Inhale. Exhale. We're doing a very brief flow and it's going to incorporate dancer. Float your arms overhead. Inhale. Exhale. Bow deeply. Find a long spine. Listen carefully. Step the left foot back. Runner's lunge. Come up to a high lunge. Feel a little lifting up of the left thigh. And then bend the right knee a bit more. Inhale. Exhale. Bring your hands to frame the right foot. Down dog split. The right leg goes up and back. Feel that energy. Feel that length. Inhale. Exhale. Step the right foot all the way forward again. ⁓ your weight forward. Float the left foot. Warrior three. And then as you rise up, the right hand finds the left ankle. Start by squeezing those knees together. Float the left arm up. Find your dancer. Natarajasana he ⁓ danced the world into existence. So it's not just a ballet dancer... we're creating. Float the left knee, rise all the way to stand. Inhale. Exhale, step the left foot back again. Hands frame the right foot. I know, not easy. Step the foot back, inhale. Exhale, let's take a little vinyasa, a little reset, something familiar. And then we do that on the other side. Bend your knees, look forward, step or float to the top of your mat. Bow deeply. Root down, rise up. Exhale, fold forward. Find your flat back. Step the right foot back. And then float the left leg up and back down. Dog split. Inhale. Exhale, step the left foot all the way forward again. Shift your weight. Warrior three. Come to stand. Think about bringing those thighs together. Left hand finds the right foot, then everything travels back. Dancer. Take your breath. Release it. Step back to your lunge. Take a vinyasa. This is it. I went a little over. Apologies. I'm one minute over. Bend your knees, look forward, step or float. Top of Matt. Bow deeply. Come to sit. How'd you do? Let me know. That was tough. Not necessarily. I wanted to get the answer in. I didn't know exactly what it was gonna look like. But let's take a moment here. Come do your breath. Maybe close your eyes. Put a hand on your heart, one on your stomach. And together, we'll just see what intention we might set for the day. The pose is revolved hand to big toe. We've had this card before. Dharma, live your purpose and no contentment. What is your purpose? What is any of our purpose? Years ago. This is an out of the mouths of base babe situation. I think I was in high school and I said I think the point is just to get better at getting better. I don't think I knew what it meant. Now I think I have a better sense. Today, how can you get better at getting better? What is a step, an action, something specific and tangible that we can do, each of us, to simply Not be our best, not be the best, certainly, but just get a little better at whatever your values might be, at getting better. A step closer to the goodness, the life, the kindness that you hope to embody. The light that is in me bows to and honors the light that is in you. Must day. Thank you as always for spending this time. I'd love to hear from you. Leave comments, hit like, hit subscribe, hit bell icons, do all of those things so that we might stay connected. And check out the link in my bio. Actually, I link to these cards. They're really very beautiful. ⁓ Anthony Salerno and I forget the artist's name, but it's in my description. At any rate, thank you for being spending this time and starting your week with me. Namaste.