Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Wake Up Stiff? Morning Yoga for Neck & Shoulders + Finding Fulfillment
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: There is not much funny about sleeping funny. Let's fix it with ten minutes of morning yoga. Hello friends. Welcome to your daily flow ten 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, be sure to like and subscribe and do all the good YouTube things. Come to any comfortable seat. I'm gonna sit cross-legged. I don't use blocks. In this practice, because I don't want to assume that you have them, but if you do, it's really nice to sit up on a block. Ground your hands on your knees, find your seat, and then lift your heart, look up. Inhale. Exhale round your spine. Separate the shoulder blades. Again, inhale, lift your heart, look up like cow pose. Exhale round. More time in hell. And exhale. Float your hands overhead. Wrap your elbows under, your shoulder blades under, and then see if you can feel like you're leaning back on your seat and look up. Inhale here. As you exhale, take your right hand to the floor beside you, reach your left fingertips up and over. Energize through the left side of your body. My right hand is on the floor, so I'm gonna pull the floor back, turn my heart more towards the ceiling. Inhale. Exhale. As you inhale, rise up through center and take a twist. Take the right hand across to your left knee. And then the left hand nice and close behind so you can sit up tall on your sits bones as you inhale. Exhale, look back over your left shoulder. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, twist. Coming back to center, lift the left arm up and then cross left over right. So I'm holding opposite knees and I feel a nice stretch through the shoulders as I lean back around my spine like cat. Inhale. Exhale. Keeping the elbows crossed. You can bring your hands either to opposite shoulders or you can eagle wrap them. Feel like you're suctioning the elbow creases together, then lift up. Inhale. Exhale and easy bow forward. All the way up, float your arms overhead, and then taking your hands behind your back, interlace the fingers. Press down and then wrap those knuckles around to the right side of your body. Wrap the right elbow back. Let your head fall to the right. And then look up and down. This'll be a big stretch in the left side of your neck. And it's fine where you feel the stretch, where you feel the release. And then sit up tall, float your arms overhead, and then pick up your right foot and extend it forward. You can use your hands to help. So now the sole of my left foot is inside my right thigh. Look up, inhale, exhale, fold forward. I have a little bit of a bend in my right knee. And I feel like I'm tucking that tailbone under. So Janishasana, but a very gentle stretch here. Inhale. Exhale. Now, while I'm here, bend your right knee enough that you can grab your right big toe with your right piece fingers. And I'm going to plant my left hand a little bit beside and behind me and pick up my right foot. Try to sit up tall. So you're going to want to lean back and round your spine. Stay up on your seat and then flex that right foot to the ceiling. It's like a happy baby pose. So the right knee is still very deeply bent. Sit up tall. Inhale. Exhale, go ahead and set that right foot down. And then I'm gonna cross my legs again, this time with my left foot on top, or left shin in front if you're not in half lotus. Sit up tall as you inhale, use your hands on your knees, exhale round. Again, inhale, lift your heart. Exhale, round your back body. Carve out the belly. One more time. Inhale. Excellent. Coming back up, float your arms overhead, look up, feel that lengthening of your waist, and then take your left hand to the floor beside you, reach the right fingertips over, and then using the left hand on the floor like you're trying to pull the floor back. That traction helps open up the chest to the ceiling a little bit more. Breathe into your right ribs. Inhale. Exhale. And coming back up as you rise through center, take a twist, take the left hand across to your right knee and bring the right hand behind. A lot of times people lean back a lot here. So try to stay up on your seat so you get taller, head over the seat, and then take your twist, look back over your right shoulder. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale twist. Keep the left hand where it is, flip the right arm up, and then cross right over left. And pause here. Roll everything out. Should feel nice. it does for me. And as you sit up, hands either to opposite shoulders or eagle wrap, suction everything together, lift those elbows up. And then think about bringing the elbows towards your navel. Untangle that. Float your arms overhead. And then taking the hands behind your back, interlace fingers, and then wrap those interlaced fingers around to the left side of your body. It's okay if they don't make it all the way. And then wrap the left elbow back. Let your head fall to the left. Yeah. As you release all that, pick up your left foot, extend it forward, and set up your janashasana. So the sole of my right foot is inside my left thigh, float the arms, inhale and exhale, send your heart forwards. A little micro bend in that left knee. Actually, it's not even micro bend, it's fairly bent. And thinking about that little pelvic tilt down. So it's a pleasant stretch in the hamstring, but I don't feel like I'm going for it, I guess. Inhale. Exhale. Left piece fingers, left big toe. I'm gonna plant my right hand beside me. And then as I sit up, see if I can bring the foot with me. And I'm not just pulling on the foot. The leg is participating here. Like it's it's helping. I'm using my leg muscles too. It feels like a nice little stretch inside the thigh. Like happy baby. Inhale. Exhale, go ahead and let that go. And then just rock yourself forward. Come to your quadruped. Plant your palms. Wrap your elbows under, look forward as you inhale. As you exhale, round your spine. Inhale for Cal. Exhale for cat. Coming back to your neutral, step back to plank, and then let's just go right to down dog. Bend your knees, pull your heart, your belly back towards your thighs, and your gaze, your drish deep up towards your navel, energy in the fingertips and pads, inhale. Exhale. And then walk your feet forward. One footprint at a time. Bend your knees as much as you need to get your hands flat on the floor. And then just make little circles. So I'm shifting my weight from foot to foot, to hand to hand to foot, going counterclockwise. And then also reverse direction, go clockwise. no, that was clockwise. This is counterclockwise. I never quite got that. If I were in Australia, would it be up? No, I'm kidding. Bend your teeth. Roll yourself up to stand one vertebrae at a time. Head and shoulders come up last. Give your shoulders a nice rollout. Maybe your wrists too. Plant your feet firmly. Inhale, float your arms overhead. Exhale, bow forward. Inhale, lengthen. Step your left foot back, runners lunge. Release the left knee down onto the mat, untuck the left toes. And I'm gonna press down the top of my left foot, pick up that left knee and set it down softly. Float through your arms. Crescent lunge, Anjaniasana, inhale. Exhale, bring the left hand to the floor, and I in the right arm to the ceiling. And I'm gonna reach my right hand back, see if I can grab my left foot. Let those hips sink. If you can't quite reach it, it's okay. If you have a towel or a strap, you can use that to help, or just skip it. Sink the hips either way. Look up either way. Inhale. Exhale. Set both hands to the inside of the right foot. Tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, and then walk yourself along the left side of your mat. Finding your wide strata, little tuck of your tailbone lengthen. Exhale, bell. Find your long spine again. Feel your quads engaged. Hands to catch your waist. Rise up with a long flat back. And then pivot your right foot to point forward. Extend your arms. Triangle pose as you exhale. Send the left hip back, right arm forward, and eventually down. Look up your left hand. Inhale. Exhale. I'm gonna come back now to a warrior one, but I'm gonna equal wrap my left elbow under my right. And then shift forward. See if you can find Warrior 3 with these eagle arms. So it's a challenge. Let it go if you need to. Again, you can use blocks under your hands if you want. But again, as always, be comfortable in the wobble. Don't feel like you have to reach for something. And then untangle the arms. Flip them overhead. Carry the left foot up. Get that left knee as high as you can. Now I'm gonna see if my left piece fingers can easily catch my left big toe because my left leg is helping. I'm not just pulling on the foot. And then maybe you flex that foot forward. Maybe it gets longer, but keep the sense of length in your spine. And if you want to open out to the side, take a breath. Exhale. Now the hard part to me. Float that left foot forward, release it, keep it high, and then set it down. Mountain pose. We'll do all that one more time. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, bow forward. Inhale, look forward. Step the right foot back. Release the right knee down onto the mat. Press into the top of the right foot in order to soften that right knee. Float the arms. Inhale. Exhale. Bring the right hand down to the mat, left arm up to the ceiling. And then swim that left hand back, see if it catches the right foot. If it doesn't, again, don't worry about it. Let the hips sink and then use the right hand on the floor to help deepen your twist. Inhale. Exhale. Release that. Set the left hand on the floor. Tuck the right toes. Walk your hands along the right side of your mat. Nice wide strata, little tuck of the tailbone. Inhale. Exhale, fold. Inhale, lengthen. Pause here, engage your legs, feel your feet pressing down, hands catch the waist, rise up, long spine. Pivot your left foot to point forward, extend your arms. Inhale, exhale, triangle pose, right hip back, left arm forward, forward, forward, and eventually down. Look up at your right thumb, maybe. Left thigh is turning counterclockwise. You have a nice stretch. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Now I'm gonna wrap the right elbow underneath the left, eagle the arms, you don't have to. Start to shift forward and come into your warrior three with eagle arms. Soften your breath, soften your eyes. Now as you rise up, untangle the arms, float them overhead, and then see if the right piece fingers can catch the right big toe. And I'm really thinking about lifting my knee so that I can pick up, so I can easily grab the toe without reaching for it. And maybe you float the right foot forward. Maybe you lengthen. Remember you're not reaching for the foot, you're pulling it to you. You're plugging that thigh bone into the hip socket, grounding the instep of the left foot. Take a breath. How you doing? Float the right foot, lift it high, inhale, and mountain pose. Take a breath. You can stay standing. You can come to a seat. You can lay for a brief shavasana, and I'll grab the cards. This yoga oracle deck. I just love it. It's really beautiful. There's I always put a link if you want to check it out. It's affiliate it's an affiliate link, but nobody's ever clicked it, so I don't get paid on it anymore. But that's okay. They deserve Anthony Salerno. I forgot the artist name, but Anthony wrote them. And I think they're they're really inspiring. Alright, this is a bad shuffle I'm doing, but you know, good enough. I'll grab a card. How about this one? It's a reverse plank meaning effort towards a valued goal brings fulfillment. Effort toward a valued goal brings fulfillment. The effort brings the fulfillment. Not meeting the goal. Not success. Knowing that you're working towards something that is of value to you is fulfilling. I know a little bit about that here on this channel, here with these practices. I feel very fulfilled. even though relative to a lot of YouTube creators, my numbers are not anything to write home about. But that's okay. Because I really feel fulfilled in these practices. I'm really I love doing them. It's become such an important part of my life in my own personal practice. Central to it, perhaps. I have an aversion to goal setting. I don't like it. Not because I'm not working for things, not because I lack ambition or aspiration. Because sometimes I find myself working so hard to get the goal that if I don't, or if I don't get it in the way that I wanted it, or in the time frame that I wanted it, I feel defeated and I beat myself up. And it's a spiral that I repeated for years. So I long ago, decades ago, released the need to make goals. some coach, some person saying, a goal is a dream with a deadline. Well that deadline was crippling to me. However, that's because I was missing the point. It is the effort towards the goal that brings the fulfillment. So do I have a goal of having hundreds, thousands of you Participating here live with me every morning, yeah, I do. I have that goal. But I feel so fulfilled and satisfied in the act of showing up with you every day. The effort is the contentment, is the fulfillment. What's like that in your life? Let me know. The light that is in me bows to honors and is so grateful. to connect with the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you for your time and for your practice for spending it with me. And because there aren't a billion of you, you're especially important. Be sure to like, subscribe, and leave comments. And my second episode, depending on when you're watching this, of course, my second episode of my new podcast, Hello Friends with James Donegan, will be out on s next Sunday, October eighteenth, I believe it is. my interview with my Friend and fellow musician Maddie Powell is a really, really cool woman. So I hope you'll check it out when the time comes. Sunday, October 18th, on all podcast platforms, including right here on YouTube. Have a great day. Thanks for spending this part of it with me. 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.