Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Wake Up Your Body: Morning Yoga for Energy & Awareness
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: Take 10 minutes of yoga to ground, open, energize, and be ready for whatever the day might hold. Hello, friends. Welcome to your Daily Flow 10-Minute Mornings practice. My name is James. Come to sit on your mat. floor. If a mat's not handy. I'm gonna put my left shin in front of my right and then sitting just simple cross legged. Peel the fleshy part of your glutes away from your sits bones. Cup your knees with your hands. Firm down through your seat. Lift your heart. Inhale. Exhale, round your spine. Separate your shoulder blades. Shift back on your sits bones. I don't know if you can see but I'm really rounding even into my low back. And then as you sit up, rocking to the front edge of your seat, lifting your heart. And then roll. hug the chin. One more time. Excel. Slow your hands overhead. And take a side bend to your right. Right hand to the floor beside you. Reach the left fingertips up and over. And then drag the floor with that right hand. Look underneath your left arm. Exhale. And then as you come up to sit, step that left foot on the floor. And then wrap the right elbow around the left thigh. Left hand behind. Nice kickstand. Sit up tall as you inhale. And then twist as you exhale. Take a counter twist over to your right. Extend the left leg long. Setting up for Janasya Shasana, the instep of the right foot is in the left thigh. Float the arms, you can have a little micro bend in that left knee if you'd like. Fold forward. Now it's first thing in the morning. So maybe you're able to really fold forward. Maybe it's not as deep as it would be if you were warmed up. A little tuck of the tailbone. Feel a sense of pulling forward more than down. One more breath and inhale. Exhale, and then coming to sit up, plant your right hand behind you and then plant down in that right shin and lift your hips up off the mat. So Star Gazers pose. down all the way. Lean back and just change the cross of your legs so now the right shin is in front. Find your seat, sits bones. Cup your knees. Lift your heart as you inhale. Round as you exhale. Sitting up tall, float the arms overhead. And then take your left hand to the floor beside you. Look up underneath your right arm. Open up the right side of your body. Inhale. Exhale. And as you come to sit up, step that right foot on the floor. Wrap your left elbow around your right knee. Right hand behind, sit up tall as you inhale. Twist as you exhale. Let's do that again. Inhale. And exhale. and take a counter twist over to your left. Coming back to center, extend that right leg, up your Janasana, flexing the right foot, Exhale, park forward, forward. Keep your shoulders relaxed. If you find yourself restraining to reach your foot, try not to. Now for a lot of us, if you're right at side dominant, your right leg might be a little more open. So just be present with what you're feeling. Inhale, exhale, and then come up. Plant the left hand behind you, ground down on that left shin, left your hip. Nice front body stretch. Exhale, this time as you lower down, take your fingertips behind you, lean back and just roll yourself over. So cross those ankles, roll yourself to all fours. Set up your palms, fingers spread wide, wrap the elbows under. pull your shoulders a little forward of your wrist. And really you're looking for the energy in your, I always say finger pad, so that I mean the tips of your fingers, like that top knuckle and the base knuckle. So those two places get a lot of my attention and energy. And then I step back to my plank position and then downward facing dog. So if you're thinking about those finger pads and knuckles, then there's much less pressure on the wrist. Also the index finger and thumbs get a lot of that energy. Just take a nice inhale and exhale. Walk your feet forward to your hands and bend your knees a lot. Roll yourself to stand, lay your head and shoulders be heavy so that they come up last. Feels nice. Give your shoulders a shrug up, back and down. A brief standing sequence today. Planting your feet firmly together, find a chair pose, bend your knees and float your arms. Inhale. And then divers pose, sweep your arms back, find a nice long spine and maybe come up onto the balls of your feet. Squeeze your thighs together. Now can your chest get parallel to the floor? Re-bend the knees, float the arms, chair. Twice more, pose. Activating those legs. Sit into your chair. One more time. Diver. So it's still really just a big exaggerated cat and cow. Inhale back to your chair. This time fold forward, bring your hands to the mat. Look forward as you inhale and step your left foot back. We're coming up to a warrior one. Adjust your feet if they need it. external rotation of the thighs, wrap the left shoulder blade under, look up, inhaling, exhaling. One more inhale. This time exhale, Warrior II. Inhale, rise up, parallel feet. Exhale, wide legged forward fold. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bow. Root down, rise up, inhale. Exhale, triangle pose. Rotate your right foot forward, send your left hip back. Look up, inhale. Exhale, back to your warrior one. Inhale, look up. Exhale, let's take a vinyasa. Knees chest or Chaturanga. Up dog or Cobra. Downward facing dog. Inhale. Exhale, bend your knees, look forward, inhale, step or float to the top of your mat. Exhale, fold. Inhale, chair pose. Exhale, diver's pose. Now chair, this time we'll fold forward. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, step the right foot back and then come up to your warrior one and I have to adjust a little bit. I have to noodle my left foot further forward. External rotation of the thighs, wrap the right shoulder blade under. So there's a little bit of a twist here. Look up, inhaling. Exhaling. One more inhale. Open out warrior two. Inhale, rise up, parallel the feet. Exhale, fold. Maybe catch your peace fingers around your big toes. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, bow. Press down, rise all the way up. And then rotate that left foot for your triangle. up your right thumb, inhale, exhale, come back to that warrior one, inhale here, exhale takes you through your flow of choice, maybe knees chest, maybe jaturanga, cobra or up dog. Downward facing dog. Inhale. Exhale, bend your knees, look forward. Inhale, step or float. Top of your mat. Exhale, bow. Inhale, chair. Mountain Pose. We're gonna float that all through. One breath, one movement. Inhale, chair. Exhale diver. chair. Exhale fold. Look forward inhale. Left foot back exhale. Inhale warrior one. Exhale warrior two. Inhale rise parallel feet. Exhale wide legged forward fold. Inhale look forward rise all the way up. Exhale triangle or half moon. You know I like to get a little balance in. Inhale. Exhale, Warrior I, step back and rotate forward. Inhale here. Exhale, take your flow of choice. Little energy, a little movement, a little breath, nothing fancy. Inhale, exhale, inhale hop or flip, step, exhale bow, inhale chair, exhale diver, inhale chair, exhale fold, look forward, inhale, right foot back, exhale. Warrior one, rise up. Warrior II, exhaling. Inhale, rise, parallel feet. Exhale, wide legged forward fold. Start by lifting your chest, press down through your feet, come all the way up, and then rotate that left foot, either triangle pose or half moon pose. Inhale, exhale, Warrior I. Inhale, look up. Exhale, Chaturanga, and so on. Your breath, your practice. No one else is. Inhale, exhale, inhale, step or float. Exhale, fold. Inhale, chair. Stand tall, mountain pose. take a pause. You might lie down and have a brief Shavasana. You might sit or just close your eyes while I grab the cards. If you're new here, we end every practice by pulling a card from this yoga oracle deck and setting some intention for the day. So maybe ask for whatever it is you think you'd like some guidance about. I'll do the same. Let's see what comes up for us. Same as yesterday, reflection. Plow poses the shape, self observation eases the journey of awakening. This may not have been yesterday, it may have been a few days ago, but regardless, self observation eases the journey of awakening. I've often said in classes, I'm sure in these videos too, that it's far less important what these shapes look like than what your experience of them is. how you experience your body from the inside. They call that interoception. It's the fancy word. And how you relate to the world in space. Proprioception is the word for that. How you experience your body in space. You the folks who stop at the bottom of every escalator looking at their phones and block traffic. No proprioception. No sense of where they are in space. Self observation or yoga asana practice, my point being, asana practice is really a great opportunity for self observation. You get to feel into your body. You get to feel how things. are today. Today's down dog is not yesterday's down dog. So you get to feel into how your body feels today. But you also, more importantly, get to experience your body from the inside. You get to drop in and really think about how you're moving rather than just letting yourself go through the day by rote or by muscle memory. And sometimes it's easy. It's easy even on the mat. to kind of check out when we think we know what the next thing is. That's why I think it's important. It's an important mental practice. It's important to remind ourselves when we're doing a yoga flow, when we're in any kind of physical practice, really, we don't know what's gonna be next. So we have to trust our hearing. We have to trust our concentration. And we have to develop that so that you don't know what I was gonna say next. Truth be told, I didn't know what I was gonna say next. So it develops my concentration because then I have to remember it for the other side, which sometimes I'm not great at. We all make mistakes. But this moment, this pause that you've just taken, that you've just completed, a moment of self observation, a moment of being, of experiencing yourself from within this physical body, that eases the journey of discovery. You're on the journey of discovery because you've taken the time to observe yourself. And... paraphrase Eckhart Tolle, if I am observing myself, then who's the I? If I'm observing my body, who is the I that's observing? Deepest, capital S, self, soul, spirit. inner light. whatever you call it, that's you. And this is just a tool. This is a tool to help you experience life and the journey of self-discovery. I'm glad you're on it with me. The light that is in me bows to and honors the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you, as always, for your time, your practice, your presence. Please ask questions, leave comments. Let me hear from you, let me know how things are going. Let's start a conversation, and of course, be sure to check out my podcast, Hello Friends with James Donaghan. The second episode is out. Well, depending on when you're watching this, who knows how many episodes are out, but you can find it on all the podcast platforms, including on my website at dailyflow.yoga. 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.