Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / 10-Minute Morning Yoga When You Don’t Feel Like It
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: When the last thing you want to do is yoga. Maybe that's the best time to do it. 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 to ground our day together. And of course, be sure to hit like and subscribe and leave comments. I really do notice that I get more views the more comments you all leave. So I'm grateful for that. Thank you. Come to all fours. And actually come kind of near the back of your mat so you have a lot of space out in front of you. And then find your cow pose. Inhale, pull your heart forward, wrap those elbows under and feel like you're using your fingertips to drag the mat towards you. And then untuck your toes, press down in the tops of your feet, push the floor away around the spine. Again, think of that. Pulling your heart through your arms. Inhale. Exhale round. I was trying to articulate the spine this morning. Inhale. Exhale. Now keep your hips as they are and walk your hands out for puppy pose. This is not one I do that much, but I've been kind of rediscovering it lately. And I really love it. In fact, I never pose until I did my yoga teacher training. No one ever did it in a class that I was in. And people loved it and I was like, this is amazing. So feel that heart melting down. Now find a little tucking of your tailbone. And a little lifting. You're not at much risk of overdoing the hamstring here. So feel that rounding and extending. When you feel that extended feeling, that's a anterior tilt. When you rub it under, that's a posterior tilt or posterior. So I'll feel very nice in the shoulders. And then go ahead and walk your hands back. Set up now your plank wherever you want it. Step back. Inhale. Exhale. Lower your knees. Send your hips to your heels. Now roll forward to plank unfurl your spine. Exhale downward facing dog. Step your feet about hip width apart, pedal out heels. Remind yourself to have energy into the finger tips and also into the base of the finger. So if I pick up my wrist, I don't know you can see that. I feel that base knuckle, index knuckle. And then I can lower. Some control, but I'm still energized into where the energy actually will do me more good and not be too much on the wrist. Inhale here. Forward, float your left foot back. Okay, nice and long. Inhale and exhale. Wrap everything under. Any point of contact with the mat gets attention. So ground down in that left hand and in that right knee. Inhale, lengthen. Now reach the right arm back, bend the left knee. See if you can hold the right left foot in your right hand. If you're twisting your spine to do it, don't. Just keep your hand on the floor. Now kick that heel back and pull your heart forward, just like in cow. Inhale. Exhale, release, step the left foot back. Kick the right foot out. Float the right arm to the ceiling. Supported side plane. Float the left arm to the ceiling. Apologies. Maybe roll out that left wrist. Take a breath and then stay grounded in your right knee. Come all the way up. Point the flex the left foot. Point those left toes up. Left fingertips to the left shin. Reach your right fingertips up and over. Gate pose. Inhale. Now with that right arm, I'm gonna make some circles. So send the right arm as close to the left foot as you can. It may not go very close at all. And then sweep it down and back. Do that again. Inhale. Exhale, sweep around. Inhale. Float it up. Keep going one more time. Now bring that right hand down to the mat, float the left foot in line with the left hip. Look up at the left hand, like half moon pose. Inhale. Exhale, bring your left hand down, step the left foot back. Kind of reorganize if you need to. And then right leg high to sky. Down dog split. Inhale. Little core activation, knee to nose, one time. Inhale, down dog split. Go ahead and set the right foot down, downward facing dog. Adjust if you need to. My dumb dog got a little long, so pulling back in. Roll forward a plank, lower the left knee down onto the mat. Right leg stays nice and long. Extend the left arm forward, flip the right foot back. Feel that length. Inhale. Exhale, wrap everything under. Lengthen again. Flex the right foot to the ceiling. Swim the left arm back and just see if it finds it without a knee straight and without having to change your spine. And then Kick the heel up and back, pull the heart forward. So dancer pose. Inhale. Exhale, step that right foot back, left hand down, find your supported side flank. And you roll out that right wrist, feels nice. Press down the left knee, come all the way up, flex that right foot, right fingertips to the right shin, left fingertips reach. Circles. And then down to the top of the mat. Tuck the right toes, kind of reorganized. And down dog split the left leg. Big stretch back. Inhale. One time, knee to nose. Exhale. Inhale, take it up and back. Exhale. Set the left foot down. Downward facing dog. Take a breath. Shake out your head. Walk your feet forward. Bend your knees quite a lot. with heavy arms, heavy head, roll yourself to stand one vertebra at a time. And as you come to stand at the top of your mat, maybe give those shoulders a nice little roll up and back. Inhale, float your arms. Exhale, bow forward. Inhale, lengthen, and step your left foot back to a runner's lunge. Keep that back heel lifted. Press down to rise up. High lunge. Inhale. Exhale. Warrior two. Feel that external rotation of the thighs. I say it all the time. I can't help but say it because it's changed my practice so much when I think about that. We feel so much better in these poses. Flip the right palm, reach it back. And now, just like we did on the mat, make a big circle. Swim the right arm back, down, up, take a breath. And then come to half moon pose. Shift your weight. Flip the left foot. If half moon is not feeling right for you, you can always take triangle. Take a breath. Nice self-landing. Warrior two. Inhale. Exhale, cartwheel your hands down and then down dog split the right leg. Does it look familiar? Inhale. Exhale, knee to nose. Inhale, down dog, split. Exhale, step the right foot between your hands. Step the left foot forward to meet it. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bell. Press down, rise up, inhale, exhale, mountain pose. We didn't get the dancer in from the floor. That seemed like a little too much for the minute we have left. So you're welcome. Inhale, float the arms. Or I'm sorry, depending on how much you love dancer. Exhale, bow forward. Inhale, look forward, step the right foot back, runner's lunge, rise up to your high lunge. Nice and grounded. Open out. Warrior two. Find this peaceful warrior. So right fingertips to the right shin and just circle. Reach the right arm back. Down. Forward. Up. And then start to shift your weight forward. Reach out beyond the line of that left big toe. And full maybe float the right foot for half moon. Inhale. Exhale, nice soft landing warrior two. Inhale here. Cartwheel the hand down, hands down rather, and then down dog slip the left leg. Inhale. One time, knee to nose. Exhale. Inhale up and back. Exhale, left foot steps forward. Right foot comes to meet. Lengthen. Bow. Roll yourself up. And breathe. You might stay standing, you might come and have a seat with me. Maybe place a hand on your heart and one on your stomach. And I'll give these cards a little shuffle. Just see if there's anything little inspiration to ground our day. Let's see what we got. How about This one. Reverse plank. Meaning. Effort toward a valued goal brings fulfillment. Meaning. Effort towards a valued goal brings fulfillment. Effort towards someone else's goal, probably not so much fulfillment. Effort towards your idea or someone else's idea of what you think you should do, probably not a lot of fulfillment. What's striking me this morning is that the single word of the card, the title of the card I suppose, is meaning. gives your day meaning. Everything means something. So are you spending your time and your energy and your most valuable resources of yourself and your spirit and your light to use woo-woo we words? Are you using those invaluable resources on things that give someone else meaning or on things that or not necessarily in alignment with who you want to be in the world. You know, we cannot control much. I say at the end of most of my classes, all we can control is how we arrive in the world, how we treat others, and how we treat ourselves. For me, I get meaning. I get fulfillment. Just from knowing I've done my best to offer that. To offer that positive energy. That's why I'm here. That's why I do this. What will you give of yourself today? It's fine and wonderful to have good intentions. In fact it's everything to have good intentions. But if you're not really spending your time moving with those values, moving with the things that give you meaning. Then how much less valuable, how much less meaningful are those good intentions? So today, together, let's decide that when we put our energy towards something, even if it's ultimately in fulfillment of someone else's profit or goal, that it is giving us meaning. Talking longer than I like to, but I'm gonna finish with one more thing. I work in my professional teaching life. Spoiler alert, I don't make money doing this, which is fine. That's why I do it as an offering. But I work for a very large corporation. And yes, I'm paid, and I'm paid decently for my work there. But the thing that gives it meaning is that I'm spending time sharing all of this. sharing yoga, sharing my thoughts on yoga philosophy, and helping hopefully to impact one or two lives in a positive way. That gives me meaning. Give someone else profit. What do you think about that for yourself? Let know. This made me think. Have a great day. Thanks for spending this part of it with me. The light that is in me bows to and honors the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you so much for spending this time if you've made it this far through all of my contemplation. Told you, I don't have a plan for these things. I just sort of think through it on the spot and sometimes they hit me in a different way. So hopefully that wasn't too dreadful. Let me know. Leave a comment. Don't let me know if was dreadful. Keep it to yourself. But otherwise, if you found it bearable, hit like and subscribe and leave comments and hit bell icons and do all those things. And be sure to visit my website where you can build your own library from my videos. Have a great 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.