Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Choose Your Intention | Morning Yoga & a Karma Reflection
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 of morning yoga to ground, stretch, open, energize, or do whatever it is you need and intend for it to do. 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 and subscribe and do all those good YouTube things that help us build our community. In this short practice, I don't often bring up intention for the practice. So as you come to stand at the top of your mat, I would like you to think of one positive word or phrase that reflects how you're going to approach this time right now, these 10 minutes, as you put the world on pause, find your breath. Maybe it's to receive, to listen. any of those other verbs I listed in the beginning, grounding, energizing, strengthening, pick one, just one. And as you inhale, repeat to yourself that one word. As you exhale, trust that you've set your intention. Inhale, float your arms, reminding yourself of that purpose that you chose as you exhale, fold forward, lead with your heart. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, bow. Root to rise, hands meet overhead. Inhale. Exhale, gather your hands to your heart. Inhale, float your hands overhead, press your palms. This time, take a side bend to your right. Send your hips over to the left, look up underneath your left arm. Energize those fingertips up and over. Give the thighs a little squeeze. Breathe into your left ribs. Inhale. Exhale. Then come through center and just go the other way. Look up underneath your right arm. Send your hips to the right. Open the right ribs. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, rise up. Separate your hands. Exhale, fold forward. Find your long spine and step your left foot back and release your left knee down onto the mat. Untuck the left toes. Interlace your fingers on top of the right thigh and really sink your hips. Energize down, press down, everything rooting down, down, down, down, down. And as you do that pressing down, start to lift your heart. Lift up through the base of your pelvic floor. Find a little bit of a back bend. I'm using my fingers to gently push my right thigh forward. Inhale. Exhale, lengthen the right leg and send your hips back, half split. Let me just stay fairly high, because it's first thing in the morning, not warm yet. Inhale. Exhale, come forward, plant your left hand on the mat, right hand to the right thigh. Take a twist. Energize still that right thigh forward, open up. and then plant your hands inside that right foot. And the heel, toe my right foot to the side so I a little more room. Pull the heart forward. Inhaling that intention. Exhaling. Tuck the left toes, lift the left knee, and then step back to your plank. Inhale. Exhale, lower your knees, your chest and your chin. Cobra pose, press down on the belly, pull the heart forward. Tuck the toes. Downward facing dog. Pausing here, pedal out your heels, shake out your head. Lengthen your torso, energize your fingertips. Down dog, split the right leg. Keep that right foot flexed and active. Inhale, exhale, step the right foot between the hands, step the left foot to meet it. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, bow. Press down, rise up, inhale. Exhale, mountain pose. Inhale, float your arms overhead, press your palms, take a side bend to your left. Look up underneath your right arm, inhale. Exhale, inhale, rise up. Exhale, go the other way. Look up underneath the left arm, inhale. Exhale. Inhale, rise, separate the hands. Exhale, fold, remind yourself of your intention. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back, release the right knee down, untuck the right toes. Press down, interlace fingers on top of the left thigh. Everything about you right now is energizing down. You're sinking the hips. I feel the top of my right foot really pushing down, left heel really pushing down. There's engagement. It's not just sort of sitting, which is not the worst thing in the world, but now start to feel that lifting up. through your pelvic base, tucking under the tailbone, lifting up the heart, energetically using my interlace fingers to lengthen. Inhale. Exhale, start to send that, the hips back, flex the left foot. I'm gonna stay up on my fingertips. If you have yoga blocks, you can put your hands on blocks, or you can go deeper if you feel like you're ready for it. I do not feel that way. Exhale. Walk yourself forward again. Right hand on the mat, left hand on the left thigh. Take your twist. Look up. Let those hips sink. Still gently pushing forward with my left hand. One more breath, inhale. Exhale, bringing both hands to the mat, heel to the left foot over to the side just a bit. Sink your hips, pull your heart forward. So now getting into the hip and into the inner thigh. I really feel this in the inside of my left thigh. in here. Exhale, tuck the right toes, lift the right knee, and then step to left foot back, plank position, inhaling. Exhale, knees, chest and chin. Inhale, Cobra pose. Exhale, Downward Facing Dog. Pause. Wrap the elbows under, feel the legs pulling you back in space. So again, you don't just sort of get here and hold. You're always breathing. You're always allowing the shape to Down dog split the left leg. Inhale, exhale, step the left foot between your hands. And if it doesn't make it, just noodle it up. And then the right foot steps forward to meet it. Long spine, inhale, exhale, bow. Breast down, rise up, inhaling. Exhale, Mountain Pose. We'll do that a little flowy, a little dialed up so that we have that last energy building piece of our practice. Take your time. Remind yourself of what counts, which is that intention and your breath. Maybe not in that order. Inhale. Exhale, inhale, float the arms. This time straight away, fold forward as you exhale. Inhale, lengthen. Step the left foot back. This time keep the knee lifted. Rise up, high lunge, inhaling. Exhale, straighten the right leg. Get that left heel onto the floor, pyramid pose. Inhale. Exhale, re-bend the right knee, float the arms. Now I'm in warrior one. And then take a prayer twist. I'll let that back heel peel up. Inhale. Exhale, inhale, release the twist. Exhale, hands frame the right foot. Take your vinyasa or skip it if you'd rather. Always your practice, always your choice. Down dog, split the right leg, inhale. Exhale, step the foot between the hands. Step the left foot to meet. Fold on your exhale. Inhale, root to rise. Exhale, mountain pose. Inhale, flex the arms. Exhale, bow. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, the right foot back, runner's lunge. Inhale, rise up. High lunge. Straighten the left leg. Spiral the right heel down, forward. If you need to shorten your stance, you can hop that back foot in an inch or two. Inhale. Exhale. Re-bend that left knee, warrior one. Inhale. And as I come to my prayer twist, I allow the back heel to peel up. Inhaling. Exhaling, inhale, release the twist tie lunge. Exhale, hands frame the right foot. Left foot, apologies. Take your vinyasa. At least once in each video I say right when I mean left or left when I mean right. And now, exhale, down dog split the left, oops, down dog split the left leg. Exhale, step the foot between your hands. Step the right foot to me. Fold on your exhale. Root to rise, hands meet overhead. Exhale, Mountain Pose. You can take a brief rest, come to sit, stay standing, whatever you'd like. I'm gonna grab the cards. Taking this little bit of a pause. You've already set a valuable intention for your day. Here's Max. Hey, little boy. he's not in the frame. well. Max, wanna come up? Yeah, there we go. There he is. All right, let's see what we got. We haven't had karma in a while. Well, we've had karma, but we haven't had the karma card in a while. It's an extended side angle, pose, unlearned lessons and unrealized effort, hold unclaimed growth. I don't usually talk much about the pose on the card sometimes, extended side angle is an interesting one when you're choosing to talk about unlearned lessons and unrealized effort. Because there are a lot of variations of extended side angle. Some of them are bound, some of them are, there's A, there's B, there's binds. If I'm coming into extended side angle pose, so sometimes I always tell someone if they're a beginner to bring the elbow to the thigh. And to look up also is nice if you're just not warm yet. You still feel the same stretch. You're still setting up the same posture. The unrealized growth and unlearned lessons, of course, have to do with in the shapes in our asana practice, finding the expression of the pose that feels right in your body, but that also honors the shape that someone not me came up with. and created the conditions for. And the conditions for this have to do with it's an open twist, you're peeling your heart open, your feet are both grounded, you're making a strong line of energy. Inside angle A, which even though I cue it, a lot of times people don't wanna do, your hand is landing on the outside of the foot. And so, There's something about this that is uncomfortable for people. This feels more natural. But sometimes doing the thing that feels a little less natural, that feels a little more tingly, there's sensation there. It takes more concentration, it takes more effort, and it's a little, I'm not gonna say advanced because it's not an advanced posture, but it takes a little more focus. And then something happens in any shape, but we're talking about extended side angle. Something happens in any shape when you really allow yourself to let go into it, to breathe, to trust that you've set up those conditions for the posture. I know if I'm coming to side angle A, I know my hand needs to be on the pinky side of my foot. I know that I need to feel my left leg engaged or my back leg, whichever it is. The back heel needs to be rooted. My ribs need to be opening. I have those check boxes. And so I keep coming back to them over and over and over again. And it's sometimes... I'm getting into it, it's not quite making it, and I feel that strain. And there's something that happens if you breathe and if you trust that it just, when your body's ready, it lets go and you find your expression of that pose. Not because you think you're supposed to, but because your body and your mind are ready for it. And all you've done... is set it up consistently over and over and over again. And then you just sort of arrive. So that's a lesson that we're learning. That is a growth that we are claiming. And if we're using the shape as the metaphor, which we are. then I think we're releasing old habits when we build new ones, when we find these things in our bodies through our deep mental concentration and our continued steady practice. And that washes away the old thing, the old version of it that was kind of doing it. that was maybe not really mentally present with it. And that doesn't mean that every time it's gonna be perfect, but it does mean you felt it in your body and then you can start to find it again. And then you can go further because that lesson is learned. Let know what you think. Let me know how it goes. I'm very curious. The light that is in me bows to honors and is curious and grateful for and about the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you for spending this time. Be sure to like, subscribe and all of those things and be sure to check out. Hello friends with James Donoghain, my new podcast, which launches Sunday, October 4th, 2026, depending on when you're seeing this, because YouTube is forever. So I hope you'll check it out and leave comments and reviews and things there too. It'll be on all the podcast platforms, including YouTube. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for spending this part of it with me and with Max. 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.