Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10 Minute Morning Yoga to Ground, Open, and Energize
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 ground, open, and energize for our day together. Hello friends. Welcome to your daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Come to sit on your mat in staff pose. So extend your legs out, peel the fleshy part of your glutes away from your sits bones so you feel nice and grounded. and then actively flex those feet. Plank your hands under your shoulders. Feel like you're lengthening your spine and maybe wrap those elbows under. Lift your heart. Take a nice inhale here and exhale. Bring the left foot in. Bring the sole of the left foot into the right inner thigh and then point your heart towards that right pinky toe. I'm thinking about actively anchoring down in that left side too. And float your arms and just send your heart forward. You can give it a little micro bend in the knee and your hands land where they land. So it's, it's early and we don't often start with Janasya Rasana. Usually it's an ending pose. So don't feel like it has to look like what it. I have a little bit of a micro bend in that right knee. I'm plugging the right femur up into the right hip socket so it avoids any hyperextension. Inhale and exhale. Walk yourself up to sit. And then step the left foot over the right leg, setting up for an easy seated spinal twist. Again, firm in the sits bones, reach your right arm forward and then wrap the right elbow around the left knee. then take your twists. So we're not worried about manipulating ⁓ and hooking the elbow outside the thigh. Just taking our time here to get that spine awake and by setting up this way, my alignment's good, but also I feel a nice little stretch up through the hip as well as ⁓ into the back body. Inhale. Exhale. And then come back to center. If you let that left knee open, you'll be in a figure four, so you can step the right foot in. So the right foot is flat. Hands under the shoulders again, wrap those elbows back. So it's like a nice, easy figure four stretch or seated pigeon, I guess. Not too intense, but some nice sensation. Keep that right foot anchored and press down and lift your hips up with your figure four. opening up into the shoulders. Think about pressing that left knee down. Lift the heart. Lift the hips. And then lower. untangle your legs, set them down. We'll set up the other side. So find your seat first, find your staff pose first. This is the foundation. And then step the right foot in and let the right knee fall open. Thinking about using the muscles of my leg to keep that right thigh reaching for the floor. Little bit of a rotation so my heart points to the left pinky toe and now floats the arms. Then just think forward, forward, forward, and the hands stop where they stop. Little micro bend in the left knee. Breathing into the back body, letting that hamstring just kind of slowly open up. And if you deepen your breath. let things calm down a bit. One more round. Inhale. Exhale. And then walk yourself up to sit. Step the right foot over the left thigh. Firm that foot down. Firm your sits bones down. Send your left arm forward and then wrap it around that knee. Right hand comes behind. Again, using the broadening of the shoulders, the drawing together of the shoulder blades to do all the work of the twist. That little bit of traction on the left elbow and the right knee certainly help. Inhale. Exhale. And then come back to center for your figure four. Plant the hands under the shoulders and just step the left foot in so it can be flat on the floor. It doesn't have to come super close. And feel that wrapping under. You might have to bend your elbows a little bit to get the chest nice and proud. You're looking for stretch in the right outer thighs. So whatever you need to do to kind of negotiate that and find it in your body. Breathing into that space and then press down more on the left foot and lift the hips up. So like a reverse table. You can keep that chin nice and tucked. You can let the head fall back. Your neck will tell you what to do. Take your breath. And then lower down the way you came. Untangle your legs. This time float your feet. Find your boat pose. We've done this a lot lately. Cross those shins, hug them in. Rock yourself forward. Step back to plank. So you're in your plank position. 10 fingers spread wide. Wrap those elbows under by rotating the biceps. Inhale. Exhale, lower your knees and then send your hips to your heels. Inhale, roll forward to plank, lift the knees. Exhale, down dog. Adjust the feet if you need it. We're gonna do that a couple of times. Inhale, roll forward to plank, release the knees. Exhale, tap the hips back to the heels. Inhale to plank, engage the legs. Exhale down dog. I'm going to do it one more time. Pay special attention to your fingertips and to your knuckles. Even keep some energy grounded as we flow here. Just keep in motion back to your plank when you're ready and then back to your down dog. Breathe. Lift the right leg high. Internally rotate the right thigh. So the right toes point straight down and then tap the knee to your chest. Pull it up and back down dog split. Knee to chest, really think about compressing the knee into the heart space. One more time. And this time, knee to chest and set the knee down in between the hands. Tuck the left knee in behind the right one, try to suction them together and walk yourself back. You might need to sit up on something, but you're in cow face leg. So your knees are stacked. and I'm noodling my left heel a little further forward, so I'm making something resembling a straight line with my shins. Again, that right cispon wants to come up, so I'm gonna try to anchor that down as well, and then float the arms. Take them wide. Now my right knee is on top, so I'm gonna rotate from the bicep. My right thumb points down, my left thumb points up, reach up with the left, down with the right. until maybe I can capture fingertips or hands. Now check it with your spine, knit together those low ribs, inhale. Lean the head back, exhale. Untangle the arms, shift forward so that right knee comes back to the floor, step the left foot back, step the right foot back, down dog split. This time step the right foot between the hands. Come up to a warrior one, fully grounded in that right foot and in the blade edge of the left. Square the heart forward, inhaling. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, straighten the right leg. Triangle pose. Left hip back, right arm up. Look up at that left hand. Keep wrapping the right hip under. Crescent lunge. Pivot yourself to point forward, lower the left knee, untuck the left toes. Hands come to frame the right foot. Retuck those left toes, step back to your plank, inhale. Exhale, lower your knees, send your hips to your heels. Inhale, roll to plank. Downward facing dog. Down dog, split the left leg. Internally rotate the left thigh. So it's the whole leg that rotates, not just the foot. And you're feeling that heel reach up and back. Inhale, exhale, compress your knee into your chest. Inhale up and back. Exhale, compress knee to chest. Inhale up and back. Exhale, knee to chest. Set the knee between the hands. Now tuck that right knee in behind. Sit back for your cow face pose, Gomukhasana. Noodle out that right heel. So I'm doing my best to make a strong straight line. Knees stacked. Sit up on something if you'd like, a cushion or a block. Take your arms wide. This time the left knee is on top, so the left arm will go down from the bicep. Rotate that entire left arm and then follow the thumbs. Lean the head back. Now my fingers are not touching. I'm not holding my hand, but that's the direction. Inhale. Exhale, release all of that. Shift forward. Step the left foot back, or step the right foot back, and then down dog, split the left leg. Step the left foot between the hands. Rise up, warrior one. I want to get us on our feet a little bit. Deep in the bend of the left knee, inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Energize that left leg and then Triangle Pose. Wrap the left thigh under, feel the stretch in the left inner thigh. Lower down Crescent Line. Hands for in the left foot. Step back to plank. Downward dog. and release. As you come back to the mat, taking this pause that we always take, taking the opportunity to reflect on the day as it unfolds before you, and deciding, choosing, intending how you will arrive, how you'll treat others, how you'll treat yourself. The light that is in me bows to honors and is very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste.