Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Steady Within: A Morning Yoga Flow for Balance and Change
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: 10 minutes. Ten minutes to open your body, to ground your mind, and to arrive in your day, ready for whatever surprises might come. 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 together for the day. And of course, like, subscribe, comment, do all the things before you have to head out. Come to stand at the back of your mat. Little change of perspective this morning. Stepping your feet together. Give your shoulders a nice shrug up. Back and down. And now float your arms overhead. Exhale, bring your palms to heart center. Just do that again, just waking up the shoulders a little bit. Inhale, floats the arms. Look up. Exhale, prayer to heart. One more time, inhale. This time interlace your fingers in front of your chest. Flip your palms inside out, press them forward, drop your shoulders, and then actively round your spine. So just by doing that, I already start to feel more grounded in my heels. And then they lift up the front of the pelvic bone, carving out the belly, making a little hollow belly shape. Inhale. Exhale. Float those interlaced fingers overhead. Take a side bend over to your right. So the heel of the left palm is reaching over. Look underneath the left arm. Give your thighs a squeeze if you can. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Rise up and go the other way. Heel of the right palm reaches over. Left shoulder blade wraps under. Thighs give a little squeeze. Inhale. Exhale. Now rise up, separate your hands, and then fold forward. As you come into your forward fold, bend your knees enough that your hands can be flat on the mat. So first thing in the morning, so I have to bend my knees quite a bit. Let your head be heavy. And then try to ground evenly between your palms and your hands. Now if this is there's no way this is happening, even if you bend your knees a lot, you can bring your hands up on something. But for most of us, you bend your knees enough. you can reach the floor and then just sort of shift back and forth, take weight a little more into one hand, the other hand, one foot, the other foot. And go the other way. Feels nice. Now bring your hands onto your shins. Look forward. Actively tuck your tailbone under, pull your heart forward. Like a diver almost. Inhale. As you exhale, see if you can get your belly onto your thighs. Again, bend your knees as much as you need to. And then walk your hands forward. I'm keeping my legs engaged here, coming to my plank. And then lower your knees, your chest, and your chin. Cobra pose, press down the abdomen, pull the arm. Forward and send the hips to the heels for your brief child's pose. Roll forward to plank. Inhale, downward dog, exhaling. Separate those feet a little if you'd like. Bend your knees. Roll out. walk out your heels a little bit, a little pedal if you want. Then look up, send your gaze between up towards your navel elbows wrap under. Energy in the finger pads and the knuckles rather than in the wrists. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, come forward, release just the right knee down onto the mat, and then float the left foot, extend the right arm forward. Inhale. Exhale, bring the knee to the elbow. Inhale, lengthen. And set that right hand down. Step the left foot back. Down dog split, the right leg goes up. If you like, bend the knees, stack the hips, make your circles and stuff. And then step the right foot all the way forward. Come up to a high lunge. So the back heel is lifted, and I'm thinking about pressing back into the ball of that left foot, which helps to have a nice little stretch in the left thigh, but also helps ground the right foot more and take a twist. So I'm gonna reach forward, forward, forward, hook that left elbow outside the right thigh. Lengthening into twists whenever you can. Energize the palms, guide the heart to the thumbs. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, release of the twist. Exhale, bring your hands down to frame that right foot again. Now, down dog split the right leg. Walk the hands back to the left foot, standing split at the back of your mat. It's a little tricky transition, so you have to set the right foot down to get here. That's just fine. And then take a curtsy. Cross your right knee. behind your left ankle. Your TV cabinet might get in the way. This is a price we pay. And then rise up. Standing split. I did not know that was gonna happen. Alright, here's the tough part. Ground in that left foot. Look forward. Soften your left knee enough that you can come all the way to stand and find a tree pose. Soft steady breath, softer eyes. Energize the foot into the leg and the leg into the foot. Remember that right foot can be anywhere except for on the knee joint. So as long as it's above the knee or below it, you're doing good. Feel that little pressing open, maybe. Inhale. Exhale. And now float the right foot. Exhale, set it down. Mountain pose. Do that on the other side. I'm gonna start by interlacing the fingers, pressing them forward, rounding the spine, breathe into your back. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, floats those interlaced fingers up towards the ceiling. Side bend to the left. Through center, side bend to the right. Feels really nice first thing in the morning. Rise up, separate the hands, and then fold forward. Exhale. Bend the knees as much as you need to. Look forward, inhale. Fold on your exhale and then go ahead and walk it out to your plank position, top of a push-up. Inhale here. Exhale, lower knees, chest and chin. Cobra pose. Hips to heels, keep the toes tucked for now. Roll forward to plank. Downward facing dog. And then check in with your down dog. Does it feel any different than the last time we were here? Mine does. I definitely can already tell that things are starting to warm up a little bit. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, come forward to plank, lower the left knee. You know, I think a big part of having a daily yoga practice, even these short ones, is in the left arm forward, flunt the right arm back. Inhale, take your knee to elbow. A big part of it really is just feeling this connection to your body. Set the left hand down, step the right foot back, and then down dog, split the left leg. Feel that heat energy pulling you up and back. Inhale, exhale, step the left foot between the hands. Come up to your high lunge. Pressing back in the ball of the right foot. Nice stretch in the sole of the right foot too. I don't know if. like me. I don't have any, it's not severe, but a little bit of plantar's fasciitis, so this little stretch feels nice in my foot too. Inhale. Exhale, reach forward, hook the elbow outside the thigh. Take a breath. Exhale. Release the twist. Hands come to frame the left foot. So really ground down so that then you can float that left leg up and back. And walk your hands back to your foot. Standing split. Take your curtsy. In fact your standing split. Ground down in the ball mound of the right foot. Look at the mat. That will help. Like find a point out in front of you and be specific about that point. Bend your knee a bit. Rise up. As much control as you can. Find your tree. Remember, wobbling is a part of it. So just wobble. Who cares? I see people in class sometimes reaching for walls or Sometimes if we're in a studio that has ballet bars in it, I don't want you to fall, but you can fall out of tree pose pretty safely. And float the left knee. That's a dead. it on the other side. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, bow. Inhale, walk out to plank. Exhale, take a vinyasa. Rip out pretty quickly. Down duck split the right leg. Step it forward. Exhale. High lunge. Inhale. Exhale. Prayer twist. Maybe revolves half moon. Breath, come back to your high lunge, standing, split the right leg, walk your hands back. No curtsy this time, just ground that left foot, rise up, bring the right leg with you. Maybe piece fingers to the right big toe, or maybe tree. Take a breath. All right, back to your standing split. Walk yourself forward. Chaturanga. Upward facing. Downward facing dog. not know that was coming. Walk your down dog, split the left leg, inhale, exhale, step forward, inhale, high lunge, lengthen into your twist, maybe shift forward and float the right foot, back to your stand high lunge, hands to the mat. Down dog, split the left leg, walk your hands back, ground down in that right foot, bend the right knee, and then As you float the left knee up, maybe you find a tree foes, maybe your right piece fingers capture the right big toe. Maybe the knees stay super bent, maybe you straighten it. Inhale. Exhale, standing split. Walk yourself out to plank. Take a vinyasa. Then come to a child's pose and breathe. Come to sit. Or stay in child's pose if you'd like. I'll grab the cards. you do? How'd I do? More importantly. Right. Let's see what we get. Just a little inspiration to ground our day. It's as mystical as you want it to be. How about this one? Warrior three is the pose. Eternal existence. The body is temporary, but the true self is everlasting. Body is temporary, but the true self, I always say the capital S self is everlasting. The skin suit that we walk around in. It's just a temporary housing. It is a vehicle through which we're able to experience the material world. saying is we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, not physical beings having a spiritual experience. Does that shift anything for you, that thinking? It does for me. It means the stakes of the things that I think are important in my physical, egoic mind really aren't. They're not even real. This is temporary. It's not gonna be here. It certainly is gonna age. It has already a bit in these fifty three years I've been on the planet. But the thing that is enduring, the thing that is eternal, whether you believe in reincarnation or heaven or whatever in between. Things that count are the spiritual lessons that we learn, the spiritual lessons that we teach. lives, the meaningful lives that we share. Everything else. It's just some nice things. I like nice things. Nice things are nice. But they're not you. The light that is in myself bows to the light that is yourself. When I'm in that space in me and you are in that space in you. Thank you so much for being here, for spending this time. It means a lot. Really. If one person watches, if ten thousand people watch, which would be nice. But regardless. Grateful. Comment, like, subscribe, share. Tell a friend. Tell two friends. Make a poster. And I'll see you soon. 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.