Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Balance Is Constant Adjustment
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: Balance isn't about standing still. It's about making constant little adjustments. It's true in yoga and it's probably true in life. Hello friends, welcome to your daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James, and of course, practice till the end so we can draw our card. Set intention for the day. And be sure to hit like and subscribe and all that. All right, come to stand. Step your feet actually about hip width distance apart. Lift the toes and then set them down one at a time. See if you can feel the energy of the feet pressing down, traveling up through the legs. Give the shoulders a nice shrug up and back and down. Can you find a lifting up through the base of the pelvic floor that travels all the way up to the crown of the head? A little tilt of the tailbone down. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, floats the arms overhead. Keep firmly rooted in those feet as you fold forward. So putting real attention on your connection to the mat. Inhale, lengthen your spine, hands to shins. Exhale, keep pressing down in the feet. As you fold, keep a little micro bend in those knees. Press down, rise up, inhale. Exhale, arms come to the side. So I mean if you're standing upright, you're already balanced. So just continue to cultivate that connection. Inhale, floats the arms. Exhale, bow. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, peel your chest down towards your thighs. Press down through the feet, rise up. Inhaling. Exhale, mountain pose. One more time, just like that. Inhale, flip the arms. Yeah. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, fold. This time shift your weight more to your right foot as you come up and see if organically the left foot can come off the floor. Maybe it's not. Maybe you keep the ball of the foot on the floor and you just get a little more weight in the right. Float that leg high. Use the strength of the leg to get the foot high. Flex the foot. Inhale. Exhale, big step back to a high lunge. How'd you do? Wrap the shoulder blades under, look up. Inhale. Exhale. Bring your hands to frame that right foot. Step back, plank position, top of a push-up. Lower the knees, the chest, and the chin. Baby cobra, press down, pull the heart forward. Tuck the toes. Downward facing dog. Inhaling and exhaling. Inhale, step the right foot forward. Come up to a warrior one. And this time take your hands behind your back and hold opposite elbows or wrists. Now press your ribs into your back, into your forearms rather, and then lift up and lean back. Bend the right knee more. Think about shifting your weight more into the back foot. Take a breath. Now look forward, pull your heart forward, press down in that right foot, step forward with control. Keep the connection in the back body. And release the arms. Inhale, float. Exhale, bow, keep the connection of the feet. Keep cultivating that deep connection. Flat back. Bow deeply. Now start to shift more weight into the ball mound of the left foot. As you rise up, keep pushing down in the left foot. See if the right foot floats. Left leg is really engaged, still lifting up to that pelvic floor. And of course, if you need to keep the ball of the right foot on the floor, you do that. Inhale, then big step back to your high lunge. Exhale. Now feel a little lifting up of that right leg. Feel the connection of both feet. Inhale here. Exhale, hands come down to frame the left foot. Step back to your plank, inhaling. Exhale, knees just in gin. Cobra pose. Take a pause, take a breath. Down dog is such a nice moment of reset. Step the left foot all the way forward, rise up to your warrior one, spiral that back heel down. Left knee keeps bending deeply. You're feeling the pinky edges of both feet. And then take those elbows behind your back. Press the low ribs into the elbows. Feel like the forearms are helping to lift you up and out so there's no crunching in the low back. Take your breath. Now start to shift your weight forward. Keep the connection in the back body. A little more weight in the left foot brings the right foot forward. Float the arms. Fold forward. Long spine. Bow deeply. Again, shift your weight into the right foot. Come up. Bring that left knee up with you. I'm using my left hand to help. Just make sure that left foot is not on the knee joint. So above it or below it. Arms can be up or they can stay in prayer. Anytime your body is in contact with itself, give that some extra love and attention. Feel the engagement of the right leg. Take your breath and then big step back with that left foot. Inhale, exhale, hands frame the right. Step it back, plank position. Take your vinyasa, knees just, chidaranga if you want. Up dog, work obra, and downward facing dog. Feel the grounding of the left foot. That grounding of the left foot will help you step the right foot forward. You can rise up to your Warrior One. Inhaling. Again, I'm going to exhale and hold opposite. Lean back, bend the right knee even more. Now start to shift your weight forward. Keep that low back connection or that low rib connection. This time, warrior three. Plant down and rise up. Rise forward, really. And then come to stand for mountain pose. Release the hands. And now floats the arms. Exhale, bow deeply. Inhale, long spine. Exhale, fold and shift your weight more to the left foot. As you press down in the left foot, as you engage the left leg, it is that energy of the left leg that brings the right one up. And then you can just take your tree. steady breaths. Remember it counts as tree pose even if the ball of your foot is on the floor. What makes it tree is that opening of the knee out to the side and that connection of the heel to the standing leg. Take a breath and then big step back with the right foot. High lunge. Adjust after you get here if you need to. No big deal. Wrap the shoulder blades under, lift the heart, engage the right leg, inhaling. Exhale, hands come to frame the left foot. Step back to your plank. Inhale. Exhale, your vinyasa. I'm still staying in knees, chest gin. And in comra. Up to you, what you choose. Downward facing doc. Feel the reset of this posture. Feel the sense of symmetry and balance. Breathe. And then grounding into your right foot, step the left foot forward Warrior. Taking hands behind them. Find your back bend, find the grounding of both feet, and then start to shift forward, forward, forward. It is the forward energy in the pressing down the left foot that make the balance. And then step the feet together. Arms to the side. Mountain pose. We'll add on one more thing. Maybe working on that tree is exactly where you need to be right now. I'm gonna offer you an option to dial it up a little bit. An option. That's all. Feel your feet on the floor. Feel the energy that lift through the pelvic floor. It's easy to forget those things when we start getting into the poses. So just take a nice deep inhale and exhale. Inhale floats the arms. Exhale, bow deeply. Inhale, long spine. Shifting weight into the right foot as you bow. Root down. Come up this time. See if the left piece fingers can find the left big toe. Now, if you have to round your spine to do this, I would hold the knee instead. Now maybe you start to straighten the left leg. It's a short practice, so we haven't really warmed up those hamstrings fully. So if you feel like your leg needs to stay bent, just keep it bent. Or maybe it opens out to the side. Again, you're more than welcome to take take tree pose again. Breathe. And then big step back with that left foot. High lunge. Take your vinyasa. Maybe Chaturanga this time, maybe not. Just breathe here for a breath, full round inhaling. Exhaling. Step the right foot forward. Rise up to your warrior one. You can either take opposite elbows or secret prayer behind your back. Reverse namaste, it's sometimes called. I don't think my wrists and shoulders are quite ready for it, so I'm gonna hold opposite elbows. Lean back as you inhale. Shift forward, move through warrior three as you exhale. Round down. Come to stand. Inhale, floats the arms overhead. Last round. Exhale, bow. Inhale, long spine. Shift your weight to the left foot. And as you rise up, right piece, fingers, right big toe. So maybe you stay here. Maybe you straighten the leg. Remember you're not reaching for the foot, you're pulling it in towards you. And maybe it opens out. Take a breath. And big step back to your high lunge. Inhale. Exhale, hands come to frame the left foot. Step it back, take your vinyasa. Mm. Feel the energy of the right foot and use that connection to step to the left foot forward, Warrior One, inhaling. Exhale, opposite elbows or wrists. Find your back bend first. And then grounding in that left foot, shift forward, press down, warrior three. Understand mountain pose. You may stay standing or have a seat as we pull our card for today's intention. This is becoming my favorite part of our time together. And I don't know about you, but it really does make a difference to have something fresh. So just looking for whatever it is that we need to ground our day together. Lead by example. The pose is eagle. Live as best you can, allow others to arrive in their own time. I'm gonna paraphrase here. But my grandfather, whom I never knew, made a speech, I think in the nineteen thirties. I might be wrong about that, in which he said, That when you lead by example, when you live out your values, then that's more powerful than anything you could ever say to another person. And in fact, if you say it, if you preach about it, like I'm doing now, then perhaps that actually weakens the life that you're living or the example that you're setting. Our actions are more valuable, more telling, more meaningful than our words. How will you lead today? The light that is in me bows to honors and is so so grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. And as always, be sure to hit like and subscribe and bell icons and leave comments. I really, really love hearing from you. And of course, it helps the most woo-hoo of all of this stuff, the algorithm to help new folks find us and join our community. Have a wonderful day. Namaste.