Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Practice, Not Performance | Friday Flow for Strength, Twists & Balance
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: On Fridays we flow. So let's put the checklist on hold and finish our week with intention, grounding, and a little breath and movement. 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. James: 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. So we'll draw a card from our yoga oracle deck, set some intention, and you can hit like and subscribe and all those things along the way. Come to stand at the top of your mat, please. Step your feet together. If it's comfortable, have your ankles touching as well. If it's not comfortable, hip width is fine. Energize your feet quite a bit. Remember, anytime your body is in contact with the mat, that deserves special attention. Also, anytime your body is in contact with itself, that deserves special attention. So bring your hands to prayer, but energize them together. Inhale. Exhale. Take your prayer hands overhead. If you need to separate your hands, you may, but look up at your thumbs. But see if you can drop the shoulders. Now firm the feet even more. Lift the heart. Inhale. Exhale, big swan dive. Bow forward. Find a long spine, maybe hands to shins. And bow deeply. Exhale. Press down, rise up. Inhaling. Exhale, fold forward. Find a flat back. This time pause here. Bend the knees quite a bit. Chair pose. Feel like you're shifting your weight back into your heels and then drop the tailbone, lift the front of the pelvis. I actually just felt that take pressure off my knees, which was nice. Look up, and we're taking a prayer twist to the left. So bringing hands back to prayer, energize those palms, and then bring the ⁓ right elbow just outside the left thigh. Again, lengthening and then twisting. Now it's early days, so if this already feels like it's too much, you can bring the forearm outside instead. Length of the spine is more important than whether you're hooked outside of a knee. Now squeeze those thighs, spiral them together, look up. Inhale. Exhale, release the twist and fold forward. Again, find your long spine and then step the left foot back so you're in a runner's lunge. Open out that left foot, rise up warrior two. Feel like the right thigh is rotating externally. So that way you might even take your right hand and give it a little opening up. Now bend the right knee a millimeter more. Feel that nice stretch. Inhale and exhale. And now flip the right palm, reach it up and back. Maybe the left hand reps behind. And as you exhale, cartwheel your left hand down to the mat. Bring your right hand to your right thigh. I'm gonna keep my back foot flat and then look up over my right shoulder. So this takes a lot. If you need to peel the back heel up, you may. Look up, take a breath, and then come back up this time warrior one. Hands come to frame the right foot. Step back, plank position. Inhale. Exhale, lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Go repose. Inhale. Tuck your toes downward dog. Exhale. Feel the sense of the hips lifting up, the kneecaps lifting up, and the tailbone dropping down. That prevents any hyperextension in the hamstring. Inhale, exhale, bend the knees, step or float up to the top of your mat. Find a nice lung spine. Bow deeply and then sit back into your chair. Again, check your boxes. I know I said leave the checks checklist to the side. I take it back. Drop the tailbone, lift the heart. Inhale. Hands come to prayer. Then hook your prayer hands to the outside of the right thigh. And again, if this feels like too much, then forearm to the outside of the thigh, right hand to the tailbone or to the sacrum. So that keeps the hips a little square and you can rotate the ribs. Lengthen it. Inhale. Twist further. Exhale. Inhale, release the twist. Exhale, fold forward. Find a long spine, step your right foot back to your runner's lunge and then spiral that right heel down, cartwheel up to your warrior two. Nice deep bend in that left knee. Again, maybe left hand on the left thigh. Give it a manual rotation out. And notice how that draws that left hip in. Then the left knee wants to find the fourth finger, fourth toe of the left foot. Deep at a millimeter if you can. It's a stretch. So feel it, takes some strength too, and then peaceful warrior, left hand travels back. Open up those left ribs, inhale, and then get really long as you exhale down the right hand. I'm gonna bring my left hand to my left thigh. If this feels like too much, you can also put your hands on the blocks or again peel up that back heel. Look up over the left shoulder. This is preparation for revolved side angle pose, which is harder than revolved lunge. Look up, take a breath, and then come up to a warrior one this time. Inhale. Exhale, hands come to frame that left foot. Step it back. Take your flow. Knees, chest, chin. Tataranga. I'm sorry, up dog, apologies. Downward facing dog. Again, pedal out your heels, shake out your head. Think about energizing into the fingertips. Then bend your knees, look well beyond the front of your mat, step or float. Long spine. Bow deeply. Sit into your chair. Inhale. A little faster now, a little flowier. Twist to the left. Look up over the right shoulder. Look up over the left shoulder. Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhale, release the twist. Exhale, bow forward. Long spine, step the left foot back. Rise up. Warrior two. Peaceful warrior. And we're coming to that revolved side angle pose. So I'm going to send my left arm as far forward as I can. See if I can't hook that left hand elbow outside the right thigh. Right hand to the sacrum to start. Firm both feet. Maybe extend the right bicep by the right ear. Now, for some folks, the left hand will come all the way to the mat. Mine is not yet this morning. So just breathing and lengthening. Inhale. Exhale. Release the twist. Warrior one. Shift forward. Float the left foot. Warrior three. Big step back, warrior one. Hands come to frame that right foot. How are you doing? Take your vinyasa, maybe a chaturanga this time. Inhale, exhale, bend the knees, step or float. And bow. Chair pose. To the right. Keep those knees even and square with one another because that'll help square the hips. Look up, take a breath. Exhale. Release the twist. Hands frame that ⁓ hands come down to the mat rather. Lengthen your back and then step the right foot back. Rise up, warrior two. Feel that wrapping under. Flip the left palm, peaceful warrior. Now we're finding all this space in our side body so we can reach forward with that left hand and then cartwheel the right hand around. So you've got nice and long, and then you hook that elbow outside the thigh. Again, peel up that back heel if you need. Keep your left hand on your sacrum if you need. Maybe extend the left bicep by the left ear. Breathe. Calm your breath. It's not easy. And then come up, warrior one. Look forward, shift forward, warrior three, press down. Where you're one. Hands frame that left foot. Take your flow. We meet in down dog. Inhale, exhale, bend the knees, look forward, step or float. Long spine. Bow deeply. Chair pose. Bend the knees more and lift the heels. Bend the knees more and lift the heels. Separate the knees. Have a seat. How you doing? Any comfortable seat. Coming here just for a moment. Have a breath. Maybe close your eyes. Let's see what we come up with. I shuffled these earlier today, so I wouldn't do it on camera. Let's pick this one. Crowpose is the shape. Practice. Devoted and focused practice leads to mastery. I was thinking about this this morning. Not with this card, but they say it's a yoga practice, not a yoga performance. And of course. We know the mat is just a mirror. So how we approach challenging things here, how we approach easy things here, is a direct reflection of how we handle things out there when it counts. We're practicing for that. But I would argue that that is also just a practice. We're all just trying to get better at whatever this is. So day when you feel like you're holding yourself to a standard, recognize that that's great. It's nice to strive for things. It's nice to try to do more advanced yoga postures. It's nice to try to do better ⁓ in your work, in your art, in your relationships. But it's a practice, which means nobody's looking really You're allowed to fail. And in that failure, is your success. That's how you'll get better. That's how I'll get better. That's how we'll get better. The light that is in me vows to honors and is so grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you so much for spending this time. Please take a moment to like and subscribe, hit the bell icon, leave a comment, do all the things. And that way we'll start to grow our community together with a little help from our friend, the YouTube algorithm. Have a great day. Thank you so much. Namaste.