Hey lovely,
My name is Ali and today we're moving through a morning yoga flow.
So if you are feeling kind of anxious or a lot of thoughts are darting through your mind,
Feeling a bit scattered,
This will be a great practice to move your body,
Shift some of that energy around and get you feeling really grounded and calm for the rest of your day.
If you're new to me,
Welcome.
Teacher retreat leader and yoga teacher mentor.
I'm sharing this space with you today in Mexico and you may not be able to see it,
But I do have the gorgeous ocean behind me and the jungle on the other side.
So I'm looking forward to sharing this space with you.
We're going to go ahead and get started in a hands and knees position on your mat.
So flatten out your palms,
Bring your wrists under your shoulders,
Knees under your hips.
We'll take just a little gentle move to wake up the spine,
Cow pose,
Drop the belly,
Peel the chest up as you inhale.
Cat pose on your exhale.
Round your spine.
Press into your hands.
Two more of those.
Follow the length of your breath in as you look up.
And feel the full exhale as you round and bring your chin to chest.
One more time,
Inhale,
Lengthen.
Exhale round.
Back to a neutral spine.
Breath in.
Tuck your toes under.
Breath out.
Downward facing dog.
Lengthen out your spine.
Take a little pedal through your heels.
Bend one knee.
Bend the other.
Feel it out.
Notice any stiffness,
Any tightness in the body,
Any achiness.
We're going to shift that today.
Let's bring it forward to a high plank position as you breathe in.
Pause here on your breath out,
Starting to fire up the core.
Take another inhale.
Slide your heart forward.
Knees to the mat as you exhale lower all the way with control.
Cobra pose,
Breath in,
Peel your chest up.
Through the knees to down dog on your breath out.
Take a big ol' inhale right here.
Stay for the exhale.
Press into your heels.
Breath in,
Reach your right leg back and up.
Breath out.
Step between your hands.
Drop your back knee down.
Arms rise up on Janayasana.
Inhale.
Stay here as you exhale.
Really soften into your hips.
Another breath in as you lengthen the side body.
Hands down for half Hanuman.
Straighten your front leg.
Round your spine breath out.
Let's flow through that.
Keep the fingertips down to a lunge as you inhale.
Lift your heart.
Round your spine,
Straighten your leg,
Exhale.
Kind of a cat-cow movement one more time.
Inhale to lengthen into your lunge.
Exhale to round into your straight leg.
Back to your lunge.
Curl your back toes.
Inhale.
Flank pose as you exhale.
Pause here.
Firm up the belly.
Breath in.
Heart forward.
Through the knees or chaturanga,
Halfway down,
Breath out.
Cobra or upward facing dog.
Inhale.
Curl the toes downward dog as you exhale.
Other side,
Left leg back and up.
Step between your hands,
Drop your back knee.
Sweep your arms up.
Big breath in.
Stay here.
Soften your shoulders.
Breath out.
Another inhale here as you lengthen,
Maybe look up.
Exhale,
Fingertips to mat.
Straighten your leg around your spine.
Just moving with your breath here again to your lunge.
Inhale,
Heart lifts.
Exhale,
Round your spine and fold.
One more time.
Inhale.
Lunge.
Lengthen.
Exhale,
Straighten the leg and fold.
Back to your lunge.
Flatten your palms.
Curl your toe.
High plank on your breath out.
Pausing here.
Inhale.
Press your hands forward and apart.
Flow it out.
Exhale to lower down.
Cobra or upward facing dog for up dog,
Hips and thighs lift.
Curl your toes.
Downward facing dog.
Land for a deep breath in.
Let something go out the mouth exhale.
Lift your heels,
Bend your knees.
Big step to the top of your mat.
Halfway lift inhale.
Fold,
Exhale.
Fruit to rise.
Inhale.
Sweep your arms up.
Look up.
Hands meet your heart as you exhale.
Arms by your side for a moment.
Feel the grounding.
As the soles of your feet anchor down.
Sweep your arms up,
Breath in.
Fold forward breath out.
Halfway lift pumps to shins or the mat.
Hands down,
Step back to flow,
Lower down.
Cobra or up dog as you inhale.
Down dog as you exhale.
Right leg back and up,
Breath in.
Step between your hands.
Breath out.
Back knee stays lifted.
High lunge on your inhale.
Stay here.
Bend your elbows.
Lift your heart.
Exhale,
Creating space in the shoulders.
Again inhale reach up Good.
This time,
Exhale,
Bend and bend your back knee.
Hover it.
Waking up the legs,
Again,
Inhale,
Reach up.
Exhale,
Bend and hover.
One more time,
Inhale,
Lengthen.
Exhale,
Bend.
Reach it back up,
Breath in.
Warrior II,
Spin open,
Breath out.
Landing here,
Press more into your back foot.
Now take an inhale,
Straighten the leg,
Reach overhead,
Palms touch.
Dancing warrior back to warrior two exhale.
Follow the breath again.
Inhale.
Exhale.
One more dancing warrior breath in.
Warrior two,
Breath out.
Reverse your warrior.
Inhale,
Right arm up and back.
Hands to the mat as you exhale.
I plank on a breath and maybe the right foot hovers.
Flow it out.
Exhale to lower.
Cobra or up dog,
Breath in.
Downward dog,
Breath out.
Here we go,
Left leg back.
Step forward.
Back knee stays up reach up Just the elbows bend.
Follow your breath.
Inhale,
Reach up.
Exhale,
Bend elbow and knee.
Two more.
Inhale.
Breath out to bend.
Breath in to rise.
Breath out to bend.
Rise,
Breath in.
Warrior two breath out.
Press into your back foot.
Straighten the leg,
Reach up,
Dancing warrior.
Back to Warrior II.
Two more.
You got this.
Inhale,
Lengthen,
Reach up.
Exhale,
Bend.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Warrior two.
Reverse the left arm back.
Hands to the mad breath out.
Plank pose option.
Hover the left foot.
Inhale.
Through your flow exam.
Lift your heart.
Breath in.
Down dog,
On your breath out,
Land and breathe.
Feel the grounding through the hands and feet.
Feet together,
Lift your heels,
Bend your knees,
Step or float to the top.
Separate your feet about hip distance,
Just a passive fold to shake it out.
Grab elbows,
Or I like to interlace my fingers behind my head.
Take a little shake out with your shoulders,
Neck,
Head.
Whatever feels good here.
Then bring your feet back together.
Lift halfway.
Inhale.
Fold as you exhale.
Root to rise.
Inhale.
Arms up.
Wrap your left arm under your right as you exhale.
Bend your knees for eagle.
Wrap your left leg up.
And over your right leg.
Wherever they connect is great.
Squeeze the limbs together.
Lung spine as you inhale.
Option to round elbows to knees.
Breath out.
Really using the core.
Keep the bind in the arms.
Again,
Rise up.
Inhale.
Just one more.
Elbows to knees exhale.
Rise up,
Breath in to unravel.
Reach the arms and knee.
Warrior three as you breathe out,
Kick straight back.
Reach forward or hands to your heart.
Strong legs kick into your back heel as you press your chest forward into the thumbs if they're there.
Standing splits,
Look down,
Plant your hands,
Belly towards your thighs,
Nice big stretch for the back of the leg.
Just bring your left foot to your right top of the mat.
Fold.
Let it go.
Sway it out.
Have we lived breath in?
We're flowing it out.
Plant the hands.
Step or hop to plank.
Lower down.
Breath out.
Cobra or Up Dog,
Find your inhale.
Downward dog as you exhale.
Feet together,
Lift the heels,
Bend the knees,
Step or float to the top.
Halfway lift,
Breath in.
Full breath out.
Root down to rise up.
Inhale,
Arms lift.
Exhale,
Right arm wraps under your left.
Eagle the other side,
Bend your knees.
Inhale,
Float the right leg up.
Breath out to wrap it over without twisting.
At the hips Really compress here where your arms meet.
And where your legs meet,
Inhale,
Lengthen.
Exhale,
Round elbows to knees.
One more inhale,
Stay with it,
Lengthen.
Exhale,
Elbows to knees.
Ride that wave of breath as you lift back up.
Breath in,
Reach up.
Breath out,
Warrior three,
Arms forward or hands to the heart.
Trying to level the hips,
So think of lifting out of your left hip.
Roll the right pinky toe down.
Chest forward.
Hands to the mat.
Standing splits belly towards your thigh.
Right foot meets the left top of your mat.
Halfway lift.
Breath in.
Soften your knees here as you fold breath out.
Bring your feet together.
Coming into chair pose.
Sit your hips low.
Reach the arms forward and up.
Really igniting the legs as you start to sit lower and lower.
Bringing the thighs parallel.
To hover just so that it gets.
Nice and uncomfortable.
Then come down to a seat.
For boat pose.
Lift your shins up or keep your heels down.
You do you.
Holding here,
Really lift through your heart.
And lengthen your spine.
Option to stay or we take a little movement.
Once again,
On your inhale,
Lower down to hover,
Lengthen.
Exhale,
Lift it back up.
Two more.
Breath in.
Breath out.
Breath in.
Breath out,
Slowly lower down.
And release your feet to the mat.
Feel that.
Whatever shows up.
Observe the grounding,
Observe the breath.
As we settle for just a moment,
You can let your knees fall side to side.
Moving into bridge pose here,
Feet and knees are about hip distance.
You should be able to scrape the back of your heels with your middle fingers.
Press into your feet,
Lift your hips.
And you can interlace your fingers underneath.
I love this stretch.
For the top of my shoulder blades.
Back of the neck.
Really anchor your feet into your mat.
Staying here or walk the feet in just a touch and extend your right leg up to the sky.
Make sure you're still breathing.
Switch it up.
Bring the left leg down.
Take one more inhale to press up through the hips.
Slowly descend as you exhale,
Feeling your spine reach the mat.
Take a moment,
Maybe knees together,
Feet apart.
One hand on your belly,
One on your chest,
And just observe what shows up.
Allowing these exhales to guide you into your body.
Possibly into a calmer state.
Slowing down to stretch it out.
Now we'll take a spinal twist,
Optional eagle legs,
Bring your legs together.
Hips to the right.
Maybe wrap your top leg around like we did in Eagle earlier.
Allowing the legs to fall left.
Eyes can turn to the right.
Take any variation that's really feeling good for you today.
Sink into the shape as we wring out the spine and organs.
You get heavy in the back body.
We unravel the legs,
Bring it back to center.
Full cycle of breath here in the middle.
We'll take the other side,
Hips to your left.
Option a wrap,
The left leg around.
For eagle as you twist.
And turn your eyes left.
Let that go.
Come back to center.
Happy baby.
Reach through your legs.
Catch your outer feet.
Maybe a little rock and roll side to side.
It's a little rounding in the spine in this shape,
So the tailbone might lift a little bit.
And just like that,
We'll move into final Shavasana.
When you're ready,
Of course,
Take any other shift,
Shape,
Movement that your body might be craving.
Or come into Shavasana when you're ready.
Extend your legs out.
You can also take this shape seated.
Otherwise,
I'll guide you back there in a moment.
Wherever you end up,
Try to find stillness so that you have a moment to reconnect and just observe.
If it helps to place one hand on your belly,
One on your chest to keep your awareness.
Internal And on the breath.
Definitely try it out.
Take a moment to find gratitude for showing up for this short practice and being open to shifting.
That anxious energy around to most importantly,
Finding stillness now.
As you connect even deeper to your breath.
The power that the breath has to keep you in each given moment.
Even through the uncertainty.
And maybe the overwhelm.
Your breath is your constant.
Stay here longer if it serves you.
If you'd like to finish off the practice in a seated position,
You can start to wake the body up with small movements.
Stretch it out however you like.
Roll through one side and I'll meet you in a comfortable seat.
I want to thank you for having the courage to show up and find peace within.
I'll see you next time.
Namaste.
