Latest / Ten-Minute Mornings / Feel Grounded for the Week | Morning Yoga & Kind Honesty
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 Monday is already starting to Monday, take 10 minutes of yoga to calm, focus, and be present for whatever the day or the week might bring up. 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, be sure to like and subscribe if you want to see more of this, or if you want other people to see more of this. Come to Hero's Pose. So Heroes Pose starts with your knees together and your feet apart, and you sit back between your heels on the floor. It's kind of intense on the knees, it's a big quad stretch. You can always sit up on a block here or a cushion or sit cross-legged if that's a better choice for you. But strictly speaking, in hero's pose, you're feeling grounded on something solid, and I think that matters here. Plant your palms on your knees. Close your eyes. And just in your mind's eye, energize the connection in the tops of your feet, in your shins, and any other points of contact you have with the mat. And then feel your spine rising up like a big strong column. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, float your arms overhead. Exhale, bring your hands to heart center and interlace your fingers. Flip your palms inside out, press them forward around your spine. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Float those interlaced fingers up to the ceiling. Lengthen your waist. Biceps come alongside the ears. And then release the right hand to the floor beside you. Reach the left fingertips over. Look up underneath your left arm. And then use that right hand like you're trying to traction the floor behind you. Inhale here. Exhale. As you inhale, rise through center. Take a twist to your left. Let the right hand cross over, left hand grounds behind. Again, ground down. Use that left hand, sit up nice and tall. And then wrap the left the right shoulder blade under. Look over your left shoulder. Inhale. Exhale. Now grounding down in that left hand, press down in your shins. Maybe lift your hips. Open up the front of your body. Inhale. Exhale, lower all the way down, and then come back to center. Float the arms overhead. Exhale, interlace fingers in front of the chest. I'm putting the other thumb on top. Flip the palms inside out, press forward, drop the shoulders round the spine, inhale. Exhale. Inhale, floats those interlaced fingers up, lengthen the waist, maybe lift the chin, and then release the left hand to the floor beside you, right fingertips reach over. Left hand is dragging the floor. You're looking under the right arm. Inhale. Exhale. Rise through center and twist the other way. So the left hand crosses over, right hand nice and close to your base. Sometimes people lean way back. So see if you can really sit up. And then ground down in that seat. Lengthen your waist. Look over your right shoulder. Inhale. Exhaling and then grounding down in that right hand, float the left arm up, maybe lift the hips, maybe not. Open up the heart. Inhale. Exhale lower down. And then come to all fours. As you come to all fours, you might want to saw out that left leg a little bit, get a little circulation back into the knee, and just do the same thing on the other leg, step the right foot back. And then come back to your neutral spine. Pull your heart forward for one cow pose. Exhale, take a cat. Wrap your elbows under shoulders forward. Start to feel a sense of carving out your navel a little. Step back to your plank position. Inhaling here. Exhale, lower knees, chest and chin. Cobrapose. And downward facing dog. Once you're in your down dog, pedal out heels, shake out head. Directing your gaze up towards the navel. Finger pads, fingertips, knuckles, energized. Inhale. Exhale, walk your feet forward to your hands. And then once you're here, separate your feet. Bend your knees quite a lot. Hold opposite elbows. Sway out your hips, let your head be heavy. Exhale, those hands, roll yourself to stand one vertebrae at a time. Head and shoulders come up last. And as you arrive in your mountain pose, step your feet together. Give your shoulders a nice shrug up and back and down. Inhale, floats the arms. Exhale, bow forward. As you inhale, lengthen and then step the left foot back and release the left knee down. Plant the left hand, bring your right hand onto the right thigh for a twist. Maybe float the right arm up. Maybe bend the left knee, reach back, hold the right foot. Or sorry, hold the left foot and get that heel a little closer to you. Inhale. Exhale, release that. Hands come to frame the right foot. Tuck the left toes and lift the left knee. Now start to energize into that ball of the right foot. See if you can get the right leg straighter. Don't feel like it has to go perfectly straight. But a little tuck of the tailbone. Hands stay grounded on the floor or on yoga blocks. Inhale. Exhale, rebend that right knee. Warrior one. Spiral the back heel down. Float the arms. Wrap the left shoulder blade under. Feel the pinky edges of your feet. Look up. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, straighten the right leg. Triangle pose. We do triangle a lot. I like it. And I like it in part because it's just a nice stretch of the inside of the right thigh, but it's really grounded and supported. Maybe look up at that left arm. Inhale. Exhale. Back to your warrior two. And then cart wheel hands to frame the right foot. Step the left foot forward to meet. Inhale. Exhale, bow. Press down, rise all the way up as you inhale. Exhale. Fold forward. Lead with your heart. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back, release the right knee down, untuck the toes. Keep that right hand planted. Left hand can start on the left thigh. Low revolved lunge. Maybe you reach the left hand back and capture the right foot. If you have that foot, draw the heel closer, sink the hips. So it becomes a quad stretch too. Inhale. Exhale, release that. Plant the hand. Lift the back knee. And then come into that pyramid pose. So ball mound of the left foot is pushing the floor forward. A little tuck of the tailbone to prevent any hyperextension. Breathe. Should feel good the stretch. I'm also doing my best to ground my back heel. Inhale. Exhale, bend the left knee, come up, warrior one. Wrap the right shoulder blade under, energize the pinky edges of the feet. Look up, inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Inhale, lengthen that left leg. Exhale, triangle posed. Maybe look up at the right thumb. Feel the external rotation of that left thigh. So the left hip keeps wrapping under, nice stretch in the left inner thigh. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Cartwheel your hands down to frame the left foot. Step the right foot to meet. Long spine. Inhale. Exhale, bow. Press down, rise all the way up. Inhale. And mountain pose. I'm gonna dial that up just a little bit so a little bit more energy flowing as we wrap up our practice. Ground your feet. Inhale, fold the arms. Exhale, fold. Inhale, lengthen. Step the left foot back. This time I'm going to keep the knee lifted. Rise up. High lunge. Inhale. Take a twist. Left elbow to the outside of the right thigh or left forearm to the outside of the right thigh. Look up over your right shoulder, inhaling. Exhale, warrior two. Release the twist. Inhale, straighten the right leg. Exhale, triangle or half moon. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Soft landing if you balance. Pause for an inhale. Exhale, step forward and fold. Inhale, look forward. Exhale, bow. Press down, rise up, inhaling. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, lengthen. Exhale, step the right foot back. Runners lunge. Rise up. High lunge. Nice and long through the waist. And look up, inhaling. Exhale, lengthen into a twist. Inhale. Exhale, warrior two. Open yourself the opposite way. No problem if you wobble. Inhale, lengthen the left leg, triangle pose or half moon pose. Same shape. We just add a little balance. Inhale. Exhale. Soft landing. Warrior two. Inhale. Exhale. Step the right foot forward and fold. Long spine. Inhale. Exhale. Bell. Inhale, press down, rise up. Exhale, mountain pose. You can stay standing or come to sit. I'll give the cards a little shuffle, looking for inspiration. So I always think it's interesting while I'm shuffling. We started in Hero's Pose. And I had a teacher point out some time ago, Andrea, it's her name. Of all the things they could have named Hero's Pose. The hero. I mean, that could be a victorious celebration. It could be so many things. Some things that look more powerful. But it's sitting. Sitting. fully grounded. I don't know. What do you think? I think that's really powerful. But that's that's the seat of the hero. Do you know asana means seat? All right, let's see. Truthfulness is a standing back bend. Be a faithful servant of the truth. It's been a minute since we've had this card. What does it mean to be a faithful servant of the truth? In yoga terms, ahimsa I'm gonna stop only because I sometimes use the wrong Sanskrit word. I get I get a couple of them confused, even though I've studied the sutras a lot. Anyway, truthfulness. To be in a state of truthfulness means you're honest about everything. Doesn't mean cruel. Doesn't mean living your truth. It means you do not lie to yourself. You do not lie to others. You show up completely honestly. And that means in every nuance and detail of your life. So as you just take a moment and reflect on the day as you see it unfolding before you. Where can you find truthfulness that is kind? Sometimes we think of being honest with someone as giving them tough love or giving critical feedback. But what does it mean, or what are opportunities? Where are opportunities to be truthful and kind? Start with yourself. In what ways can you be truthful and kind to yourself? What is something true in this moment you can say about yourself? That is as loving as the feedback you'd like others to give. You just did ten minutes of yoga. You took time for yourself. That is a loving, honest truth. I'm going to try to find five chances today. at least one of them with myself and maybe the rest with others to look for those opportunities to be completely honest and completely loving. Let me know how that goes. The light that is in me bows to and honors and is very grateful for the light that is in you. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you for spending this time, for starting your week with me, or whenever you found this video. Please be sure to like and subscribe and leave comments and visit my website and do all those things so that we can grow our little YouTube family together. I certainly can't do it alone. I'll still be here, even if it's just me, even if it's just you and me. And my honest truth is, I'm grateful for the chance. 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.