Morning Moving Meditation

Move into meditation through yoga-inspired movement and kriyas connecting to each chakra to balance mind and body from earth to sky. This can be a great daily morning practice as part of dinacharya or movement as medicine practice to soothe a tired, stiff body into alignment, and a clouded mind into clarity.

Transcript

Good morning. Welcome in to your daily movement is medicine routine. These seven movements, Kriyas, And breath focus will help you realign mind, Body, And being. This is a great practice to start before meditation or maybe just to ease into your morning. You can also come back to this later on in the day when you need to reset. Take a deep breath in and find a comfortable seat, Exhaling whatever you're anticipating. Let each breath pull you back into the now. Find a comfortable seat and extend your legs out in front of you, Preparing for a seated forward fold. As you inhale, Connect your movement with breath, Reach the arms out up over your head, Palm to palm connection. Exhale, Bring hands towards your heart center. Do this two more times. Inhale, Extend the arms out up over your head. Exhale, Hands come through heart. Don't concern yourself with whether or not you are doing this right. Find the movement in your breath and that is all that you need. Once you bring your hands back to heart center, Start to extend your fingertips towards your toes and pause for a moment. Notice where you might feel a little tightness or resistance. Give yourself a moment to ease in by bending the knees more and releasing this idea that your fingers have to touch your toes. You can relax your arms to your side bodies. You can bring your hands to the floor. You could slightly tuck the palms underneath your calves and then start to stretch chest towards floor, Lengthening the spine by bringing shoulders back and continuing to reach the heart forward. Each breath you'll notice less resistance. Stay here for a few more moments, Easing any tenderness out of the low back. Start to feel the breath up into your body. Now you can stay here and extend your stretch. The longer you're here, The more flexibility you'll get and the more that you'll start to nourish the deep connective tissue fascia in your body. And fascia loves water. Movement creates more fluidity and nourishment within the body. Or you can move into a Kriya with me by coming back up into a tall seat, Shoulders over hips, Legs extended out in front of you. Make two fists and bring the knuckles of your fists to either side of your hips. You'll press down into the earth, Lifting your bottom off the floor and then let it release and drop back down. So body drops help to activate the first chakra. This is going to awaken Kundalini energy, That sleeping serpent, The base of your spine and help to bring energy up through the rest of your torso and into a clear mind. Bend the knees if you need. This doesn't have to be a big drastic drop. You'll start to feel that Shakti energy, Waking up the body, Loosening up toxins. You might even notice some drainage from the sinuses. Aim for about 21 to 26 of these body drops over time as you create this as a daily practice. Last few. Anytime you want to release the body drops and come back to a forward fold, Listen to your body. And then take a moment to pause. Fold deep breath in. Fold deep breath out. Let's begin to move in to second chakra space for a space of nourishment, Releasing hips, Thighs and low back a little bit more. Bring the soles of your feet together. Knees bend out to the sides. Hands on your shin bones. As you breathe in, Lift your chest, Rock the pelvic floor forward. Interior tilt of the pelvis. Lift the chin away from the chest. And then as you exhale, You'll pull your chin down towards your throat, Bow your forehead and lean back. Posterior tilt of the pelvis. And you should start to feel this invitation of opening up, Lifting and lowering, Tucking and curling. Similar to cat cow movements in tabletop position, Except you're seated and rocking from the pelvic floor and again inviting movement upward into the body. Releasing any emotional blockages. Connecting to a space of nourishment through your five senses. Keep breathing through the movement. Now you can stay here with your rocks and rolls or join me in a Kriya. Slowing down the movement, Sit tall, Proud chest. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, Bring your hands towards your feet to help support you pulling your chest down towards the earth. Taking a deep forward fold. Take a moment to connect your feet together a little bit more. And if you need to move the feet further away or closer together, Please do. Now take a deep breath in. Down into the pelvic floor, You breathe and then exhale, Fold a little bit deeper. Prepare that again, Deep breath into the pelvic floor and deep breath out. One more full breath in, Full breath out. Slowly rise up to a seat. Take a moment to breathe. We're coming into our third chakra space, Manipura, Staying in your seated pose. You can cross the legs to Sukhasana instead or keep the soles of the feet together, Baddha Konasana. Fingertips are on top of your shoulders, Elbows bending out to your sides and just start to twist. You can make this a faster slow twist. We're oscillating the spine like a fan and you're twisting from your belly button up. Sit bones rest into the earth, Lengthening the spine to allow there to be space for the twist. A great way to release subluxations of the spine, Boosting metabolism, Immunity. We're turning on all the energy source of your body right now. Through the third chakra, You create intention and focus and you build a better relationship with yourself. So give yourself this opportunity to twist away any of those negative thoughts and create space for what you truly deserve to focus on today. Thinking about the quality of the energy you want to invite into your day as you take these twists last few. Slow down your twist. Pause for a moment. Bring your hands to your belly, Manipura chakra and start to think about an intention you'd like to set for your day. Bring awareness now into your chest, Into your heart and lungs, The life force and just give yourself a moment for gratitude. Maybe bring the hands up towards your heart space, Towards your chest and just thinking about one or a few things that you're grateful for. Bringing that positive flow into your body. We're going to shake up some negative energy and bring in positive energy flow to the heart chakra Anahata with the balance of love and kindness, With the balance of giving and receiving. Simply extend your arms out in front of you with palms facing downward. Hug your shoulders onto your back so you have a proud chest, Core is engaged and then just start to take small little movements, Pumping the arms up and down. Pumping the arms up and down with a little bit of resistance so you can start to feel the activation of your heart, Your chest, Your lungs, Breathing, Releasing negativity, Bringing in positivity. Keep pumping the arms up and down. Go a little bit faster and notice how it's difficult to be upset or angry. Bringing in pure joy, Love, Kindness. Send it out to the world and receive it right back into you. Take one more breath in. Finish your pumping as you exhale. Open the arms nice and wide out to the sides, Thumbs point up. As you exhale, You'll clap one time in front of you. Pull your hands towards your heart center. Take a moment, Bow your chin to your chest, Breathing in and breathing out. Now let's open up into the throat, Neck and shoulders. Expressive chakra, Vishuddha chakra. With your chin on your chest, Go ahead and relax your hands to your legs. Adjust your seated pose any way you need to. Just start with some nice easy movement through the neck and shoulders. So chin to chest, Rotate your ear to one shoulder, Pause to breathe into the side of your neck. As you exhale, Chin to chest and then change sides. Ear to shoulder, Pause to breathe into your neck. Just move through this very fluidly, Very slowly. Close your eyes. Take these half circles, Half moons, Chin to chest, Ear to shoulder. If you feel a tight spot and you want to pause and breathe into it, Even better to loosen up that tight connective tissue. And then slowly return your chin to your chest. Bring your head back over your heart. And imagine for a moment that you have a pencil that's attached to your forehead and you're going to use your head, Your forehead, To draw a figure eight on a piece of paper in front of you. So start to manipulate your head and your neck as if you're drawing this figure eight and what you'll notice is exaggerated movements. Chin to chest and then chin to opposite shoulder and then rotating ear towards shoulder. Making that figure eight movement is going to help you rotate any subluxations in the cervical spine, Realign the neck. So you might even notice some snap crackle pops as you do this. Pause, Take a moment. It's a little bit of a brain teaser, But start to shift to the opposite direction. So changing how you're drawing your figure eight on the piece of paper in front of you. And usually one side is a little bit more interesting than the other. Either the brain gets confused or there's just a little bit more stiffness in the neck. So give yourself a moment to slow down and really be mindful with the movement. Don't rush this. It's a great way to clear any blockages in the throat, Neck and shoulders where you hold a lot of tension and stress. You get to unpack all that right now so you can speak your truth, Express yourself to the world around you. Take a moment. Pause, Chin to your chest. Now gently bring your head back over your heart. Lengthen through the crown of your head. Deep breath in all the way from your root chakra to the crown of your head. Exhale. Let that something go. We're going to offer a little Kriya that's going to help create a passageway from the throat chakra into the mind's eye with lion's breath. Sitting comfortably, Close your eyes. Take a deep inhale through your nose and then through your mouth, Let an exhale go. Next one will be a sigh. Deep breath in. Sigh it out. Do that a few times here on your own. Just breathing in and letting out an audible sigh. Super beautiful way to release stress, To release anything holding you back. Then we're going to add in lion's breath. On your next exhale, You'll stick out your tongue as far as you can and roar like a lion. Deep breath in. Two more times. Inhale. One more. Let that right here right now. Good. Soften your mouth. Soften your jaw. Take a moment to close your eyes. Relax your tongue to the bottom of your mouth and bring your thumbs or your index fingers to connect to your forehead, To your third eye center. Take a deep breath in here. And as you exhale, Go ahead and fold to the earth, Finding child's pose, Balasana. Bringing your toes to touch, Your knees apart, Melting your hips on your heels as you reach your fingertips in front of you and kindly rest your forehead down onto the mat or onto a block or pillow. And give yourself a moment here to drop into the earth and stitch yourself into it and be held and received as you bow with reverence to your day, As you bow with reverence to you. And you are reminded that you have a thinking mind and a thinking body. And sometimes they act independently. But in this space, As you create clarity in your mind with a deep inhale and a deeper exhale, You know your truth. You see your truth. You are your truth. Take a few moments in stillness and silence. Breathe in and breathe out. Draw yourself up to tabletop, Bringing your knees underneath hips and palms underneath shoulders and find a few cat cow movements as you tuck and curl, Feeling that energy that you opened up start to circulate fully through your body. So beyond your tailbone, Beyond your core, Beyond your neck and your shoulders, Through your arms, Your legs, Your fingertips, Your toes to the very crown of your head. And to finish our flow, We move into downward facing dog. Walk the palms an inch or two forward, Tuck the toes, Lift your hips up and back, Inverted V shape. Bend the knees as much as you need to press your chest back towards your thighs. And as you're upside down, You create clarity in the mind, Connecting to the seventh chakra, Sahasraha. Just taking a moment to spill yourself upside down and feel connected equally to the earth as you stitch yourself back in. You have everything you need. You can release attachment and open yourself up to an unclouded joy for life. Close your eyes, Breathe in. Close your eyes, Breathe out and slowly walk your feet towards your hands. We'll bring this into one sun salutation, Opening all the chakras, Inhale, Rise up to a standing posture, Bringing the arms out up over your head, Palm to palm connections, Salute to the sun, Salute to your day, Mountain pose. Exhale hands, Pause at your heart center. Deep breath in, Deep breath out. And now you're ready to step into what's next for you. Connecting to the earth, You are grounded. Connecting to your body, You feel nourished. Remind yourself of your intention. Check in with the quality of the energy in and around you. Breathe in to clear the mind and know your truth. And breathe out to open yourself up to a new day. Namaste.