Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Show Up and Find Your Focus | 10-Minute Morning Yoga
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 days when showing up is the point. Take 10 minutes to show up. Hello, friends. Welcome to your Daily Flow 10-minute mornings practice. My name is James. This is Max. That's my coffee. Please come to stay at the top of your mats. Be sure to practice till the end so that we can set some intention together for the day. And of course, be sure to like and subscribe and all that stuff. Stepping your feet together. I know, I know. It's time for yoga. Time for yoga. Can you sit please? Float your palms overhead. Interlace your fingers and bring them to your chest. Flip your palms inside out and press them forward. Drop your shoulders around your spine. That's fine. Nobody needs to look at me. Inhale. Exhale. Float those interlaced fingers up over the ceiling and take a side bend to your right. Feel like the heel of the left palm is reaching up and over. Look underneath your left arm, give your thighs a squeeze. Inhale. Exhale and then rise through center just go the other way. Heel of the right palm reaches over, look under the right arm. Give the thighs a little squeeze together so you have a good strong base. Inhale. Exhale and rise up. Separate your hands and fold forward on an exhale. Look forward and step your left foot back and release your left knee down. Untuck your toes. Max, come to your place. Vote your arms. Or you can interlace fingers on top of the thigh. Relax your shoulders away from your ears. Now firm your feet more. Remember that sense of pressing down to the top of the left foot. So you could hover the left knee. Lift your heart. Bring your hands down to the mat and then straighten that right leg. Send the hips back. Flex the right foot. Feel free to put your hands on blocks here. And I'm coming all the way with my bum to my left heel. Inhale. Exhale. Walk your hands forward up here. Inhale. Exhale, lower your knees. Max, your chest and your chin. Cobrapose. Press down your belly. Pull your heart forward. Tuck your toes downward facing dog. Hi, dog. Take a breath. Inhale. Exhale, step your right foot outside your right hand, release your left knee onto the mat. Untuck the left toes and take a twist. Right hand onto the right thigh. Look up. Maybe bend the left knee. Maybe reach the right hand back and capture that left foot. Drawing the heel closer to the glute. Now let your hips sink. Find that quad stretch. Inhale. Exhale. Release. Plant your palms. Tuck the left toes, lift the back knee, walk along the long edge of your mat. Long spine inhale, exhale, full, keep a little tuck of the tailbone. And then hands capture your waist, rise up with a strong core. Pivot the right foot to point forward. Extend your arms. Triangle pose. Left foot back, right arm forward, and eventually down. Look up at that left thumb. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Pause for an inhale and then cartwheel your hands to frame the right foot. Step the left foot forward. Inhale long spine. Exhale, bell. Press down through your feet. Rise all the way up. Inhale. And then interlace your fingers, but put the other thumb on top as you exhale. Flip those palms inside out. Press them forward. Drop the shoulders around the spine. A little lifting up in the front of the pelvis. Inhale. Exhale. Float those interlaced fingers up towards the ceiling. And we'll start to the left this time. Inhale, the right palm reaches over. Look underneath your right arm. Inhale. Exhale, rise through center, go the other way. Exhale, rise up, separate your hands and fold forward on an exhale. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back, release the right knee down. Untuck the right toes. He's never wanted to do this before. Fug your arm. Lift your heart. Again, press down into the top of the right foot and press down and forward with that left heel. So much energy in the top of the right foot that your right knee doesn't even feel like it's on the mat. Look up. Inhale. Exhale for that half split. Straighten the left leg, send your hips back. Flex the left foot. You can fold forward here if it feels good. Inhale. Exhale. Hands frame the left foot. Step back, cling position. Inhaling. Exhale. Take your vinyasa. I'm taking knees chest… Cobra. And downward facing dog. Exhale. Energize those finger pads, wrap your elbows under. Step your left foot outside your left hand, release your right knee down and untuck your right toes, left hand onto your left thigh. Look up. Maybe sink those hips just a little bit. And then if this feels nice and you want to dial it up, bend the right knee, see where it wants to come, and then reach the left hand back. Don't feel like you have to strain back and catch the foot because. You don't. So this is just adding a little bit to the shape. It's not the main event, but it does feel good. Inhale. Exhale, release. Plant your hands. Tuck your right toes. Lift your right knee. Walk your hands along the left edge of your mat. Nice wide straddle. Inhale. Exhale. Fold. Hands catch your waist. Rise all the way up. Long spine. And then pivot those left toes to point forward. Extend your arms. Triangle pose. Breathe. Easy. None of this is very strenuous. Just waking up our bodies. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. And then cartwheel your hands to frame that right foot. Sorry, frame the left foot. Step the right foot forward. Inhale. Exhale. Bell. Inhale. Root to rise. Exhale. Mountain pose. So we'll do all that a little bit flowier. I'll keep my back knee lifted. So it'll be a little bit different this time, just dialing up the energy a little bit. But if you wanna do exactly what we just did, by all means, feet are on the floor. This time just flip the arms overhead. Inhale, exhale, fold, inhale, lengthen, step the left knee back, and then come up to a high crescent. Energize the ball of that left foot just like you energized the top of the left foot before. Let that sink your hips and then right heel is active. Lift your heart. Inhale. And as you exhale, let's take a twist. Left elbow outside the right thigh, energize the palms, look up over that right shoulder. Exhale. Inhale, release the twist. Exhale, pyramid pose, straighten the right leg. Get that left heel down onto the mat if your stance needs to be shorter. It can. Inhale. Exhale, rebend the right knee, and then cartwheel all the way up, warrior two. Straighten the right leg as you inhale. Triangle pose. Exhale. Inhale. Pause for an exhale. Rebend that right knee. And then cartwheel hands down. Take your flow. Follow your breath. Step the right foot outside the right hand. Step the left foot outside the left hand. Malasana squat. Ground down. Elbows support the thighs, but they don't force them out. Lift up to that pelvic floor. Keep your hands in prayer. Or for an extra challenge, float your arms up. Rise all the way up. Inhale. Exhale. Step your feet together. Mountain pose. Inhale, float the arms. Exhale, bow. Inhale, lengthen, sorry button. Exhale, step the right foot back. Come all the way up for your high crescent. Find your feet, especially the ball of the right foot, pressing the floor back. Nice heel stretch too. And then left heel is energized as well. Look up, inhale. Exhale, take that twist. Always lengthen into twists. Guide the palms, energize the palms, guide the heart to the thumbs. Inhaling. Exhale, release the twist, and then energize to that left leg, fold forward over your left leg, spiral the right heel down. Inhale, exhale, re-bend the left knee, float the arms. Warrior two. Straigh the left leg, inhale, triangle pose, exhale. Look up for that right thumb, maybe inhale again. Exhale, warrior two. And then cartwheel your hands down. Take your flow if you'd like. Follow your breath. Remember, the breath is the event, much more than the shape. We're just using the shapes to deepen our connections. Tet the left foot outside the left hand, right foot outside the right. Malasana squat. Lift up through that base. Maybe float the arms. Press down, rise up. Mountain pose. Maybe you wanna lie down, take a moment of shavasana, or have a seat. And let's see what card comes up. What do you think Max? He's very interested. The shape is I think Lotus, it's hard to tell what her feet are doing, maybe sukasana. Now, this moment is an opportunity to experience yoga. I imagine I've said it here a lot. I definitely say it in classes all the time. Yoga is not a thing you do. Yoga is a state into which you enter. A state that Batanjali in the Yoga Sutras defines as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. And that can only happen now. You can't do it later. You can do it later, but you can't put it off till later. If you want to do the work, it's in the moment that you're doing it. It's not something you plan for, it is something you practice for. And you find those moments, you find your now. Whenever, wherever you are. The question for most of us is, how? How do you stop your mind from fluctuating? Well, you don't do it by trying to stop your mind from fluctuating. You don't do it by trying to hold your thoughts down. You do it by finding a point of focus, maybe a breath, maybe something external. A lot of times people use candles like the flame of a candle. But anything could be any object that's in front of you, or go inside for your breath or maybe even your heartbeat. Direct your attention there. Stay with it. And at some point, and it might be a millisecond, at some point your mind will clear, your thoughts will stop, and the object of your meditation will be everything. And then even that will fade away. Some people, this takes a minute. For me, it usually takes five or ten. And that's when I feel it for a moment. And then our goal as yogis is to make more nows. To make that space between the thoughts before the next one comes rushing back in, because it will. It might even be, ooh, I was meditating. That's all right. Look at that. My mindset, my cessations of the fluctuations of my mind just ceased. Ooh. Well, they came back. So minds were made to think that's okay, say thank you and redirect your attention. And at some point you find that little moment when your mind is really on pause and the only thing that exists is your deepest capital S self. Let me know how that goes. The light that is in me bows to honors and is very, very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. As always, thank you so much for taking this time and practicing. Be sure to like and subscribe and check out my new podcast wherever you listen, including here on YouTube. there's a playlist already up on my channel with just the trailer episode right now, which is just me. But I'm gonna have some great guests. I'm very excited about it. And it'll be every other week, half-hour informal conversations about all of this and the ripple effects that it can have in our lives. I hope you'll join me. Wonderful day. 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.