Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Morning Yoga for Tight Hips, Twists & Oneness
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: Monday morning catch you a little off guard? still feeling tight, and maybe some weekend... vibes? Well, you came to the right place. Hello, friends. Welcome to your daily flow 10-minute mornings practice. My name is James. And of course, be sure to practice till the end. We'll draw a card and set some intention together for the day. And always hit like and subscribe on your way out. Come to stand at the top of your mat. Separate your feet about mats width distance apart, so a little wider than maybe normal they normally are. Feel grounded in the outer edges of your feet, and then give your shoulders a nice roll up and back. Nice deep inhale. Then exhale. Inhale, float your arms overhead. Exhale, fold forward. Keep this wider stance. So this should feel a little different, maybe than normal. And if you're having a little tightness, you might need to bend your knees a little bit. Bend your knees enough that you can bring your hands flat on the floor. And then release your neck. Bend your knees. Deeply, whatever deeply is meaning you right now, but keep your heels nice and grounded. It's a molassana squat, but you might not go this deep. You might stay a little sh top a little short of this. And then press down the heels and lift the hips up. We'll do that a couple of times. Bend the knees, that's an inhale. Push the floor away, that's an exhale. Again, inhale. You never have to have your legs perfectly straight. You never have to have them super deeply bent. Just find your range of motion and then lift once more. Heel toe your feet in so they're about shoulder width now. Find a flat back with your hands on your shins. Actively pull your heart forward. Draw your shoulder blades together. Tuck your tailbone under. Find the longest version of your spine that you can. Inhale here. As you exhale, step the left foot back. Release the left knee down and untuck the left toes. Maybe give that knee a little lift so you feel less pressure on it. And then I'm just going to interlace my fingers on top of the right thigh. Wrap the shoulder blades under. Look up at the ceiling. Or the top corner of your ceiling. Inhale. Exhale. Bring the ⁓ left hand to the floor. I'm going to peel my right thigh open. Come with the pinky edge of that right foot. Look. And we've done this, we did this recently. Feel that right hand guiding the thigh forward and away. And it doesn't have to look like anything special, but you should feel a nice stretch in the outside of that right thigh, right hip. Inhale. Exhale, go ahead and set ⁓ re-square everything. Set your right hand down, tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, and then step back to a plank position. Big rep under of those elbows. Inhale. Exhale, lower your knees. And as you come down, bringing your chest to the floor, feel the elbows hugging into the ribs. Knees, chest, and chin touch the mat. And then your baby cobra pose, pull the belly, press the belly down, pull the heart forward, and then tuck your toes, send your hips to your heels for a brief child's pose. Nice and long. Inhale. And exhale, inhale, roll yourself forward, come back to your plank. Let's find our down dog. Notice here, I see a lot of down dogs where people's spines, upper backs are really rounded. So think about the legs pulling you back in space, fingertips pushing forward. So those two motions lengthening the back, just like we did with hands on shins a moment ago. Inhale here. Exhale and then step your feet forward. Nice long spine. Inhale. Exhale. Peel your ⁓ Belly onto your thighs as you take a fold. Now press down through your feet, rise all the way up, long spine, reverse swan dive. And then hands to the side. Let's do all of that again. Step your feet nice and wide, just slowly waking up those hips. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, bow forward. Bend your knees enough that your hands come flat to the mat. Pull your chest forward using that traction of the mat, inhaling, and then bend the knees deeply. Exhale. Pause here. Inhale. Exhale, press through the heels, lift the hips. The crown of the head points towards the floor. Inhale, the heart points forward as you bend the knees. Exhale, press down in the heels, lift up those hips. Third times the charm. Inhale. Exhale, lift. Heel toe your feet so they're hip width distance apart and find your flat back. Hands to shins. Pull the heart forward. Tuck the tailbone down. Wrap those shoulder blades back. Feel the length of the spine. This is a nice little stretch because of this traction on my shins. I still have a little bend in my knees. Because of that traction on my shins, I feel more space, a little decompression in my back body. And then go ahead and fold forward, step that right foot back. And then kind of reorganize however you need to to find your crescent lunge. Again, I'm just interlacing fingers on top of thigh for now, wrapping those shoulder blades under. Feel your belly peeling up and away from that left thigh, and the left heel pushing the floor forward and those two things together. Give a nice stretch. I'm feeling in my right quadricep in my right hip flexor. Inhale. Exhale, bring the right hand to the floor and peel that left side open so you're finding that left thigh going forward in a way and then leaning back to look up. Feels really nice all through from the ⁓ low back across the top of that shin. Or top of that thigh rather. Inhale. Exhale, reorganize everything. Step back to your plank. Nice and long. Inhale. Exhale, lower knees, chest and chin. Co-repose. Downward facing dog this time straight away. Step in if you a little bit if you need to. Your heels never have to be on the floor. They can be lifted and knees can be bent. In fact, that's a nice thing to do, even if you're more flexible, just to find that length of the spine. And maybe the heels yearn for the mat. Inhale. Exhale, bend the knees a bit. Walk the feet forward to the hands. Find a flat back. Bow deeply. Press down through your feet, rise all the way to stand. Melt in pose. We're gonna flow. ⁓ we'll come out a little different, but we're gonna flow some of that. So stepping your feet wide. Inhale, floats the arms. Exhale, bow forward. Sit into your malasana squat. Inhale. Exhale, hands come to the floor. Step the right foot back, step the left foot back, inhale. Exhale, knees, chest gin. Inhale, cobra. Exhale, downward facing dog. Step the right foot between the hands, release the left knee down. Crescent lunge. Inhale. I'm going to take a prayer twist. Hook the left elbow outside the right thigh. You can bring the left hand to the mat again. And if you want to dial it up a little bit, tuck the left toes and lift the left knee. If you want to dial it down, you can stay on the knee. You can bring the forearm. Outside the thigh instead. Take a breath. And then release your twist. Hands come to frame the right foot. Step it back. Inhaling. Exhale. Take your vinyasa knees chest. Cobra. Downward facing dog. Left foot steps forward, right knee lowers down, untuck the toes, crescent lunge. And then think about taking that right arm forward. So you're shifting your weight forward in order to find the twist. Always lengthen first and twist. Maybe tuck the right toes and lift the right knee. Draw the shoulder blades together. Inhaling. Exhaling, release the twist. Hands come down. Step back. Take your vinyasa. You can take chaturangas if you want to. I'm not feeling it this morning, so I'm taking these chest every time. In your downward dog, inhale. Exhale. Bend the knees and step the right foot outside the right hand. Step the left foot outside the left hand. Back to that malasana squat. Heels are pressing down. You're not dumping down into the hips. You're anchoring in your feet, lifting up through the pelvic floor. Nice flat spine. One of my favorite transitions. Reach your arms forward, boat pose. Send your hips back. Float your feet up. Now knees can be bent like this or straight. Pay attention to your low back. I see a lot of rounded spines. So feel that heart lifting up, shoulder blades together. If you need to set down your toes on the floor, you can set down your toes and still be in the shape. Inhale. Exhale, lower down five, four, three, two. One, release it. Step the feet flat on the floor. Wrap your shoulder blades together. Bridge pose. Curl your spine up off the mat. Very brief little back bend. Interlace fingers. Walk your shoulder blades together. Open your chest. Inhaling. Exhale, lower down the way you came. Knees to forehead, forehead to knees, cocoon everything in. And then rock yourself up to sit all the way. Taking a little pause here. Coming back to your breath, you might close your eyes while I put on my glasses and give the cards one more shuffle. Not only looking for what might serve you, but something that I can explain or add some extra enlightenment to. Let's take this one. And look at that. Bridge pose is the shape oneness, universal consciousness, infinite manifestation. Universal consciousness, infinite manifestations. You are a manifestation of the universal consciousness. So am I. So is this sofa. So is this yogamet. All of creation, whether it's man-made or arrived, naturally. is a manifestation of the one universal consciousness. Which means We have a responsibility to one another and to it because it is us. We are it. If you're A person from a Judeo Christian background. And I suspect other traditions as well that I'm less familiar with. Then you certainly have heard. In the beginning was the word. Spoken into being. That's you. And it's me. And it's everything there is. What will your peace of the universal consciousness speak into being today? Let me know. The light that is in me bows to honors and is so very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you so much for spending this time with me, for starting your week here, or whenever you happen to find this video. Please take a moment to like and subscribe and leave comments and share with friends. Our community is building slowly but surely. And I always love hearing from you. So never hesitate. You can also send me an email, james at dailyflow.yoga. Have a wonderful day. Namaste.