Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Find Your Rhythm: Morning Moon Salutations & Truthfulness
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: If you woke up on time, if you did everything right, and still things seem to not quite be going your way. Like tech problems with your YouTube stream. You've come to the right place. Hello, friends. Welcome to your Daily Flow 10 Minute Mornings Practice. My name is James. we will still practice for 10 minutes. I apologize, it's a little late if you're tuning in live. excuse me, of course, practice till the end. We'll set some intention together for the day. Yesterday was the fall equinox. Equinox means equal night in Latin, when the day and night are the same. So I'm a day late. But we're gonna do some moon salutations today. If you've not done moon salutations, it's a really lovely practice. and I wanted to find something with no chaturangas, so because we worked a lot on that yesterday. Taking your arms overhead, feeling the edge of your mat, take a side bend to your right. Pressing my palms together, look up underneath your left arm. Inhale. And bend your knees. As you rise up, inhaling, pivot so that you can come into triangle on the right side. Look up at that left thumb, maybe. Inhale. And then exhale, pyramid pose. Bring the left hand down. You can certainly use blocks here. Big toe of the right foot, pushing the mat forward. Inhale. Exhale, release the left knee down, coming to a crescent lunge. The sequence represents the phases of the moon as it waxes and wanes. So now you're in a crescent moon. And then coming back down to center, pivot yourself to Skandasana. So tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, anchor down that right heel, take a breath. And then as we come through center, a little pause and then to the other end. Now the moon is changing its direction, so we crescent to the, I guess, back of the mat. Inhale. Exhale, bringing your hands down. Tuck the right toes. Lift the right knee. Energize the left leg pyramid. Inhale. Exhale. And then I'm gonna have to soften my left knee just a little bit, bring my left hand to my left ankle, and then Exhale, rise all the way up to stand and then set up that goddess squat. Cactus, the elbows, toes track out. And then as you rise up, hop your feet together, side bend to your left. And we just keep going. So now you can float out to your goddess, or you can step out. Rise up. We start to the left this time, triangle pose. Look up at the right. Exhale, pyramid pose, bring the right hand down, hands come to frame the left foot. Inhale. Exhale, release the right knee down, untuck the right toes. Crescent lunge. Inhale. Exhale, we pivot to skandhasana. So pivoting yourself. Toes point to the ceiling. Take a breath. And then come through center. Pause. Other side. If you need to keep your hands on the floor for that, it's just fine. And then fib yourself to point over the right foot, lower the left knee down, untuck the left toes, crescent lunge. Inhale. Exhale, hands come down to frame that right foot. Tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, straighten both legs, pyramid. If your right leg isn't perfectly straight, or if you want to put your hands up on something, that's just fine. Inhale. Exhale. I'm gonna soften the right knee, bring my right hand down, take my left arm up, then re-engage. Pivot or rotate rather that right thigh clockwise. Nice stretch. Inhale. Exhale and then rise all the way up. Set up for that goddess. And step or float your feet together. And let's come to stand at the center of the mat. We'll flow all of that each direction at least one more time, maybe even twice. As we start to flow, as always, let go of any need for perfection. And maybe in your mind's eye, you might even close your eyes. These poses are not advanced. See if you can picture in your mind's eye that waxing and waning of the moon. Inhale, float your arms overhead. Exhale, side bend to the right. Inhale, rise, exhale, float out, got a squat. Inhale, straighten both legs. Exhale, triangle pose. Inhale, pivot your heart to face forward and back flat. Exhale, fold. Inhale, look forward, soften the left knee. Exhale, release it down. Inhale, crescent lunge. Exhale, pivot. Skandhasana. Inhale, come to the center of the mat pause. Exhale, skandasana to the left. Inhale, pivot over the left foot, release the right knee down. Exhale. Inhale, crescent lunge. Exhale, hands to the mat. Inhale, energize the left leg. Pyramid pose. Exhale. Inhale, left hand down, right arm. Exhale, come all the way to stand. Inhale, rise up, pop your feet together. Side bend to the left. Exhale. Inhale, rise. Exhale, goddess. Inhale, straighten both legs, triangle to your left as you exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Bring that right hand down and fold over the left leg. Releasing the right knee down. Press it line. Inhale. Exhale. Pivot to Skandasana. the center of the mat. Exhale to the right, skandasana. Pivoting to the right. Release the left knee down. Float the arms. Inhale. Exhale. Hands come down. Tuck the left toes. Lift the left knee. Pyramid pose. And then bring the right hand down. Float the left arm up. Triangle pose. Rise all the way up to stand. Gotta squat. Hop your feet together. Sidebend to the left. We'll do one more round. Rise up through center. Sidebend to the right. Stand up tall. Goddess. Rise up. Triangle to the right. Exhale. Pyramid pose. Release the left knee down. Crescent lunge. Gandhasana. Inhale the center. Exhale to the left. Pivot over the left foot. Inhaling. Exhaling. Inhale. Rise. For skanda. for sorry, Ardha Tantrasana. And then bringing those hands down. Tuck the right toes. Lengthen the left leg. Pyramid. Peel yourself open. Try. all the way up. Up or float your feet together. Oops, I skipped goddess. Apologies, goddess squat. Now rise up. Side bend to the left. Come back up. Goddess. Last round. Triangle pose. Pyramid pose. Crescent line. Pause in the center. Skandas in the to right. Pivot over the right. Crescent lunge. Hands down, tuck the left toes. Pyramid. Peel yourself open. Triangle. Come all the way up. Gotta squat. Step our foot together. This time, hands to your side. Mountain pause. How'd you do? You can stay standing, come to sit, or take a little shavasana while I grab the cards so we can set some intention together for the day. There's something to me that's so profound a little bit about the symmetry of moon salutations. And you know, it's like any meditation kind of practice. Sometimes you get lost in the weeds, but as long as you stay really concentrated and present, which I think is the point, then I I I don't know, I just think it's really nice. All right. Truthfulness. Be a faithful servant of the truth. It's a standing back bend on the card. We've we've had this one a bit lately too. Being a faithful servant of the truth. There's a trend this sort of pop psychology, Instagram, TikTok psychology that says, you're standing in your truth. Well this is my truth. What about the truth? A lot of our most ancient texts, a lot of our religious texts, a lot of mythology from every tradition, and every tradition has some mythology. My mom used to say it's about truths, not about facts. It's not about whether on this day. this religious icon was born or this biblical event happened on a date. It's about what we're meant to take away from those truths. What does it mean to be a servant of the truth, looking for not Only your experience of things. And in fact, trying to look beyond our experience of things for the nugget, for the wisdom, for the truth. There really is only one capital T truth. To me, that's love. But in any situation, any situation, there is there is a truth. There is something to learn. And there's a thing, I think, for each of us in that. That your experience might inform how you see it. Your perspective is bound to determine what your experience of that truth is. But it's still the truth. And when in doubt, that truth is love. I love you. Thank you for spending this time. The light that is in me bows to honors and loves the light that is in you. Namaste. As always, thank you for spending this time. I have a little bit of an announcement. recorded the first two episodes of my podcast, which is coming next month. Hello Friends with James Donegan. You can find it here on YouTube or on any podcast app. there will be video, of course, but also you can listen just audio, conversations about the ways in which those who practice And teach and live these mindfulness practices of all kinds from all traditions, how that affects their lives, their art, their their work in the ways maybe that it snuck up, the ways maybe they didn't expect it to appear. I did not set out to be a yogi teacher. Just seems like that's where I was led. So I hope you'll check it out, tune in, go ahead and follow all those things that you can follow. And that first episode will be out the first Sunday of October, 2026, depending on when you're watching this, I suppose. Have a wonderful day. Thank you for spending this part of it with me. 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.