Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Get Lateral: Skandasana + Triangle Flow in 10 Minutes
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. In 10 minutes, we'll wake up, ground, and be ready to slide into whatever the day holds for us. Hello, friends. Good morning. Welcome to this daily flow 10 minute mornings practice. My name is James. Come to stand on your mat facing the long way. This morning's practice is centered around a lot of lateral movement, which we do fairly often in this time, but let's kind of set it up, get our hips open. Bend your knees deeply. My feet are wide, my toes are pointing out, and I'm actually letting my shoulders shrug up so I can, I don't know, because it feels good, I guess. Not really a reason. And then roll those back. Let's drop one shoulder at a time. Like I said, we do a decent amount of lateral movement in here. However, never directly been the emphasis. So really thinking about everything that has to wake up and fire in order for us to move from side to side smoothly and kind of get into that hip space a little bit. Bring your hands down to the floor and just lift your hips up. I rotate in my feet so that they're parallel and then lift your spine. Bow deeply. Just kind of waking things up. Really roll your spine forward. and then fold lead with your heart. Inhale, roll your spine forward, get a long flat back. Exhale, bow. If your hands don't reach the floor, you can also put them on blocks or anything that brings the floor up a little higher. So now rotate your heels to point in, bend your knees. And I'm going to roll myself to stand. With your toes pointing out, think about your knees tracking over your toes so everything's really kind of pressing out and then flow your arms up and cactus your elbows down. Draw your shoulder blades together. Rise up, get nice and long and then pull down into this goddess stance. rise. Exhale, wrap everything under. This time come up, we're gonna find a warrior two. So my left foot pivots in, my right foot pivots forward, bend the right knee. Deep warrior two. Energize those fingertips. And think about the rotation of this hip. it's my right thigh is rotating clockwise, so there's a wrapping under. Maybe for you it feels good to really anchor in the pinky edge of that right foot. I think a little more about the instep. One of them is not wrong. It's just what works for your body to help set up the alignment. And then float the right foot, or float the ball of the right foot, rather, float the arms. I call this flying warrior. I think that's what it's called, but I've never heard that in any book. And then set up your warrior two over the left leg. Sit down, deeply bend the left knee. Let's do that again. Flying warrior, pivot the left foot, pivot the right, warrior two. One more time, inhale. Pivot the right foot, pivot the left, warrior two over the left leg. that on, flying warrior. Pivot that right foot. This time, straighten the right leg. Let's find triangle. Left hip travels back, right arm goes forward, and eventually the right hand lands somewhere on the left leg. You can also bring the left hand to the waist if that's a better choice. Or energize those fingertips up. Again, wrap that right thigh under. Feel the stretch in the inner thigh. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, flying warrior, pivot the right foot, pivot the left, warrior two over the left leg. Inhale, straight into the left leg, warrior two over the back. that left thigh under. Feel that little stretch in the left inner thigh. Feels really nice. Maybe look up at the right hand, knit together the front ribs, lean back. There's so much to think about. None of it's wrong as long as you feel anchored and grounded. Inhale, exhale, Warrior II. Inhale, flying, take that pivot. Warrior II to the right. Inhale, straightens the right leg. Exhale, triangle. This will be different. Inhale, Warrior II. Exhale, Flying Warrior. This time bend the left knee, Skandhasana. Now it's early days, so if you need to stay up nice and high like this, that's great. If you wanna go a little further, that's great. One thing is not wrong, just listen to where your body wants to stop. I will tell you, if that left heel comes up off the floor, then that's your indicator that you went a little too low for your body for right now. Look at that right foot, inhale. Exhale, Warrior II. Let's do our pivot, flying warrior, warrior two to the left. Straighten the left leg, triangle pose. Take a breath. Back to your warrior two. Then that flying warrior, skandhasana to the right. So a nice deep lateral lunge. Feel the inner left thigh. Feel the heel of both feet, the heels of both feet. You're grounded in that right heel. You're grounded in the left heel. Now look back over the left foot. Inhale, Warrior II. We do our rotation, Flying Warrior. Warrior II to the right. Inhale, straightens the right leg. Exhale, Triangle Pose. This will be different. Inhale, Warrior II. Flying Warrior, Skandhasana. Warrior II, now Warrior I. Scoop the left arm down and up. So you're still in both poses. You have a lateral pose here with the Warrior legs. We also have a square pose, like Mountain Pose, with your heart facing forward. Straighten the right leg, send your left arm forward. and eventually down for revolve triangle. Now revolve triangle is much harder than triangle. You really have to focus on the strength of the right leg. You can shorten your stance and hop that left foot in if you need to and then rotate the ribs as you firm the feet. Take your breath and then back to warrior two. Let's do that on the other side. Flying warrior, make your pivot. Warrior two to the left. Flying, sorry, straighten the left leg, inhale. Warrior two. Exhale. Take your breath. Re-bend the left knee, Warrior II. Flying Warrior, Skandhasana to the right. Push off that right foot, Warrior II. Warrior I. So again, feel the strength of your legs. That right hip wants to be open, but because you're rotating your torso, you can wrap it under just a bit. It'll never go perfectly square. Or mine won't, maybe yours will. Straighten the left leg. Send the right arm forward, forward, forward and down. Hop the right foot in a bit if you need. Doesn't have to be graceful. Firm the feet. Open up, drop those right ribs. Take a breath. Warrior II. Do our pivot, flying warrior. Warrior II to the right. We're gonna float a little bit and then I'm gonna give you an option to dial it up if you wanna add some balance. Take a breath in Warrior II. Inhale, straighten the right leg. Triangle pose, exhale. Warrior two. Straighten the right leg, flying, skandhasana. Back to warrior two. Warrior one. Straighten the right leg, send the left arm forward, revolve, triangle. And then back to warrior two. Flying warrior, pivot the right foot. Pivot the left warrior two to the back. Straighten the left leg, inhale. Triangle pose, exhale. Inhale, exhale, Warrior II. Inhale, Flying Warrior, Skandhasana to the right. Look forward, push, Warrior II. Warrior I, straighten the left leg, right arm forward, Revolve Triangle. No one's looking for perfection just for flow. Warrior II, do our pivot. Warrior II to the front. So we're gonna do one more round. You're more than welcome to repeat exactly that or add balances. So those triangles become half moons, regular half moon or revolved. So see what feels right for your body right now. Take a breath in Warrior II. Inhale straightens the right leg. Exhale, maybe half moon pose, maybe triangle pose. Take your breath. Step back, lunar landing, Warrior II, just like yesterday. Float the ball of the right foot, Skandhasana, to the left. Look forward, push forward, now send that left arm forward and down, revolve triangle or revolve half moon. I took out the Warrior I. And then step back, Warrior II. Flying Warrior, how you doing? Warrior II to the back. Take a second, readjust your feet. Remind yourself of your grounding. Straighten the left leg. Maybe half moon pose, maybe triangle pose. Take a breath, step back with control, warrior two. Flying warrior, skandhasana. As you shift forward, the right arm floats across, maybe you float the right foot. when you step back, Warrior II. Rise up, let's take a goddess squat. Does this feel different than it did at the beginning? Come up, step or float your feet together. Mountain pose. Maybe your breath rate has changed, mine has. Maybe your heart rate, maybe your temperature. Just check in with those things. And of course, as always, have just this moment of pause to reflect on whatever the day holds before you and know that you can move in more ways than just forward or back. See if that does anything. And of course, the light that is in me bows to honors and is so, grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste.