Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Morning Yoga for Balance & Focus | Change the Pattern
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: Before the day and everyone else starts pulling you for every second. Take ten minutes of morning yoga just for yourself. 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 some intention together for the day, and of course, like, subscribe, and do all those good YouTube things. let's start off in quadrupent. Come to all fours. Spreading your fingers wide, pulling your heart forward, lengthen, lift your tailbone, and untuck the toes and round the spine for cat. So I'm gonna do something a little different here today. Almost always we inhale for cow and exhale for cat. Let's reverse that. So come to your cat pose. Inhale. Exhale, untuck the toes, pull the heart forward. Inhale round your spine, push down in the tops of your feet. Exhale, press the heart forward. The reason for this is not because the breath, which breath is which matters, keep going. The reason is that sometimes it's good just to break up the pattern for the sake of breaking it up, which is gonna be kind of a theme today. Come back to all fours, step back to your plank position, and let's just go right to downward facing dog. Separate your feet a little wider than. Hip width distance apart, bend your knees a lot, pull your hips back, look forward. Really think about lengthening your spine. Find the child's pose in this shape, because my knees are apart. And I'm lengthening, I'm reaching forward, and then walk your hands back. We're coming to a malasana, squat at the back of the mat. Make sure those heels are grounded. even sometimes it means you have to take a wider base, sometimes it means you need to be a little less deep, but ground down in all four corners of your feet. Reach your arms forward and then set them on the mat. Lift your hips. Or do that again. Waking up the legs. Bend your knees. Reach your arms forward. Inhale. Exhale. Plant your hands. Lift your hips. Your legs do not have to go perfectly straight. One more time. Inhale. Exhale. This time roll yourself up to stand. One vertebrae at time. Head and shoulders. Ooh, come up last. nice. Step your feet together. Chair pose. Bend your knees, float your arms. Inhale. Exhale. Fold forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bell. Inhale chair. Exhale. Mountain pose. Inhale chair. Exhale, fold. This time as you lengthen, separate your feet. Exhale, got a squat. Inhale, plant your palms lift your hips. Exhale, come back to your goddess. Step lift your hips again. We'll start here. And then step your left foot into the center of the mat. Shift your weight more to the left foot. Make your right foot really light. So I'm up on the ball of my right foot. And then grab that right knee and come up. I'm not picking up the right knee with my hands. I'm using my right leg to pick up the knee, but I'm supporting my balance a little bit, pulling the thigh into the hip socket. Inhale. Let's take a figure four chair. Right ankle, left knee, have a seat. Nice stretch. Through the outside of the right thigh, relax your eyes, find your nice soft point of focus, and maybe hook your elbows over your calf, over your shin. Inhale. Exhale, rise all the way up, float that right knee, come back to your chair pose. Inhale here. Exhale, bow forward. As you lengthen your spine, separate your feet. Exhale, sit down into that molassana squat. Inhale here. Exhale. Plant your palms, step your right foot to the center. Shift your weight to the right foot, make the left toes light. And I'm just gripping, I'm just supporting that left knee, but really you don't need your hands. They're just helping. A little bit with balance. In step of the right foot, internal rotation of the thighs. Feel like you're plugging that left femur into the hip socket. Inhale. Exhale, float the knee. Chair pose. Stand up. Mountain pose. I think we're ready to start adding onto this a little bit. Inhale for your chair. Exhale, stay. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bell. This time, right away. Lower down into your malasana. And then I'm gonna shift my weight to my left foot and without using my hands, come up with the right knee. Tree pose. You will be on the left side of your mat, and that's okay. Maybe float your arms. In here. Exhale. Now this is gonna be weird. We've never done this before. Extend the right foot forward. Now can you just step forward to a lunge with that right foot? Yeah. Inhale. Take a prayer twist. Hook the left elbow outside the right thigh. Look up over the right shoulder. Inhale. Exhale, release the twist. Look forward, shift forward, warrior three. Press into the instep of the right foot. It's about shifting your weight more than it is about strength. Inhale, warrior one as you exhale. Inhale here. Exhale, bring your hands down to frame that right foot. Step back, take a vinyasa if you'd like. I'm gonna take knees, chest, and chin. Cobra pose. Downward facing dog. Separate your feet. Walk your hands back. Malasana. Hands to the floor. Step your feet together. Chair pose. Inhale, exhale, bow. Separate your feet, lengthen. Exhale, come down into your malasana. Lift your hips, shift your weight to the right foot, rise up, bring the left knee up. Try not to use your hands until you have to help. Just plant the foot for your tree. Energy in the instep of the right foot, left. foot pressing into the right thigh. Remember you can have that left foot anywhere except for the knee joint. So as long as that knee is opening out to the side. Take a breath. Float the left knee forward. Extend it. Big step out. It's just a forward lunge, but it seems so crazy. We don't ever do that. Inhale, exhale, take a twist. Maybe look up over that left shoulder. Draw the heart towards the thumbs. Inhale. Exhale. Release the twist. Look forward. Energize the ball mount of that left foot. So really think about your center line being over the inside of the left foot. Nice and long. Woohoo. Inhale. Exhale, warrior one. Soft landing. Inhale here. Exhale. Takes your vinyasa. Knees chest or chaturanga. Cobra or up dog. Downward facing dog. Take a breath. Separate your feet. Walk your hands back to your malasana. This time, stand all the way up. Mountain Pode. This will be a little different, a lot quicker. Trust your hearing. Trust your concentration, trust your balance. And if you wobble or fall over, doesn't matter. Chair pose, inhale. This time, right away, just shift the weight to the left foot. Rise up, bring the right knee, figure four chair. I just realized I skipped that on one side, didn't I? Take a breath in figure four chair. Rise up, float the right knee. Step it forward. Forward lunge. Inhale. Exhale. Prayer twist to the right. Inhale. Exhale, release the twist, inhale, warrior three, exhale. Inhale, warrior one, exhale, inhale here, exhale, bring those hands down, take your finyasa, however you approach it is just fine. Walk your hands back. Malasana. Rise up. Mountain pose. Almost there. Inhale chair. Shift your weight to the right foot, rise up with that left knee, figure forech, take a breath, press down, rise up, float the left foot, step it forward, come to that twist. Inhale, exhale, inhale, release the twist. Exhale, warrior three. Inhale, exhale, step back, warrior one. Inhale here. Exhale, hands to the mat. Chaturanga or knees chest or none of the above. Your choice. Your practice. Walk your hands back. Malasana. Stand tall. Mountain pose. As we pull our card for the morning, you can lay on your back if you want for a little shavasana. You can come to a seat or Whatever. Stay standing if you want to. I'm not gonna tell you what to do. I just did that. Just looking for a little inspiration to help ground our day together. Let's pick this one. Passion. It's a forward fold. Standing forwardfold. Regular committed practice creates inspiration and energy. Regular committed practice creates inspiration and energy. You're not trying to manufacture something that's not there. You're trying to cultivate what is. Showing up every morning, that's the regular practice. That's the commitment. That's why I started this whole thing was to have a little a little bit of yoga to ground the day without feeling like we all had to get to an hour class or an hour 15-minute class or an hour and a half class. You don't have to get to anywhere. Your body is all you need. A few minutes of time is all you need. It's enough. But the commitment. The consistency is what makes the difference for all of us. I've seen it in the year that I've been doing this ten minute mornings practice myself right alongside you. What do you notice? And if it's not this, it doesn't have to be this. I'd like it to be this, but it doesn't need to be. Just find something meaningful to you and give yourself that gift. Because giving yourself that gift actually gives it to your community, to those with whom you come in contact. Because trust me, I'm a much more pleasant person than if I weren't doing yoga. Let me know how it goes for you. The light that is in me bows to honors and is very, very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. As always, thank you so much for spending this little bit of time. Maybe it was a lot bit of time for you. Maybe 10 minutes is a lot to ask. So I'm especially grateful forever, all of it. Be sure to subscribe and follow and like and leave comments and do all those things. I do love hearing from you all. It really brightens my day that you take that when you take that time. But if you don't, it also brightens my day just to know that you're showing up at all. Have a wonderful 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.