Yin Yoga Morning Energy Boost

Start your day feeling calm, present and energized. This all-level restorative yin yoga practice is a powerful tool to support you in the early hours of your day, or anytime you could use a gentle energy re-boost.

Transcript

Hey there!

Today we're moving through a morning yin yoga to boost your energy.

If you're new to me,

My name is Ali Temple.

I'm an international yoga and meditation teacher,

Retreat leader,

And yoga teacher mentor.

I travel around the world teaching yoga and meditation and leading retreats.

So no props are needed for this session,

But if you do have a cushion or a little rolled up towel or blanket,

Go ahead and grab that.

It's always nice to have options if you have them available.

And we'll get started.

And let's go ahead and come into a comfortable seated position.

So cross-legged or back on your heels,

Whatever feels okay in your body today.

Just taking a moment to get grounded.

Sink your seat down into your cushion or the earth.

Open your spine,

Let your shoulders soften back and down away from your ears and just allow your hands to land in your lap naturally.

Close your eyes or soften your gaze down to the floor ahead of you.

Start to become aware of the sounds,

The sensations,

And the thoughts that are moving through your space and in your mind today.

As we settle into this short practice to awaken your senses,

To create a little clarity,

And to boost your energy.

Make sure you do what feels good to you.

Feel free to modify or skip anything if it brings pain in your body.

Let's take a few breaths here where you are.

With your awareness on your breath,

We'll keep that with us as we move through some slow long holds and start by reaching your arms up overhead.

You can catch opposite elbows overhead.

Lengthen through the sides of the body,

Creating some space in the lungs as you really anchor down your seat.

With that length,

We'll stretch up and over to your right.

Any amount.

You don't need to force it,

Especially if it is early in the morning for you.

Really anchor down your left hip especially so you have that grounding and support in the low body to stretch and breathe into the left side of your body here.

Maybe turning your eyes to look up toward your top arm.

As you soften your shoulders,

Yin poses are meant to use as little physical effort as possible,

So see where you can soften here.

Not straining or pulling,

But more just surrendering into the shape as you breathe.

Slowly,

Gently rise back up.

You can switch up the grip of your hands.

Reconnect to the length in the center and we'll stretch it up and over to your left.

Gently allowing the top underarm to soften back into space.

As you anchor down into your right seat.

In your face,

Your jaw,

Your belly.

Just breathe here,

Maybe looking up to your right.

And let's slowly rise back up.

Release your arms down to your lap.

Just take a moment.

Land in center and feel any energy shifting through the body.

Any physical landing as you arrive in stillness.

And we'll go ahead and lay down on the front of your body.

Coming right into sphinx pose.

So as you lower down onto your belly,

Prop yourself up onto your forearms.

A nice shape to open up the chest and shoulders and bring a little compression into your low back.

You can always bring your elbows a little bit wider if you're tighter in the shoulders or bring your arms a little more forward if you're feeling a bit too big of a sensation in your low back.

Otherwise just settle in,

Find stillness.

And an option to add on if you're not feeling much after a few breaths,

You can bend your knees and let your feet float toward the back of your body.

Just reconnect to the idea of using as little effort as possible.

It's a nice way to set your day up.

As so many of us live such busy full lives,

To slow down for a short amount of time and just be in tune with your breath and with your body.

And whatever shows up in these longer holds can be a great way to bring some clarity and focus into your day and to help relieve some of that stress that might be causing you fatigue or making you feel more drained.

And as you continue to surrender in each of these shapes,

Just remind yourself that there's nowhere else you need to be,

There's really nothing that you need to be trying to accomplish right now other than just stillness and breath.

So we'll just hang out here for about five more breaths.

If you haven't bent your knees,

Try that for the last few.

Just start to stretch the legs as well,

The quads.

Slowly lower your legs back down.

Let's bring the arms by your side and just bring one cheek to the mat,

Settle onto the front body for a moment.

And switch ears,

Bring the other cheek down.

Hands under your shoulders,

Let's press it up.

Come to hands and knees.

We'll just take a little bit of movement here for the spine.

So taking a nice long inhale for cow pose,

Let your belly sink down and your chest rise.

And then nice deep exhale,

Opposite shape around your spine for cat pose,

Press into your palms.

Let's do one more of those.

Follow your inhale,

Lengthen,

Look up.

Exhale to round your spine.

Coming back to neutral,

We'll crawl the knees up to the top of your mat for saddle pose.

So knees wide,

Big toes together,

Let's start there.

And this is going to be an opening for really the whole front of the body,

Especially your thighs if you are tighter there.

So lots of options,

I'll offer a few and you take what you need.

You can start here by leaning back into your hands.

Now if you have any pain in your knees,

You can take a little towel or blanket and roll it up and then stick it underneath the knees.

So you want it to be quite thin,

But give that a go if you are feeling that.

So here we are.

If you don't feel anything in your thighs,

Keep it going.

If you're back,

Maybe bringing your forearms down.

This could be a place that you hang out.

If you still don't feel much,

If you're really open in the front body,

You might bring yourself down to your shoulder blades and bring your head down to a cushion,

A block,

Or the floor.

If you are all the way down,

You can also take that grip that we did seated,

Grabbing opposite elbows,

Just an option.

So you'll notice if your thighs are quite open that this could become a little bit more of a backbend.

There's a bit of an arch in the spine,

And backbends are known to be energizing.

So just the shape alone,

As it opens the front of the body and gives you some opening in your spine,

Can help you create some energy in the body and in the mind.

Just remember that you don't want to be in any pain in these shapes.

So once you've found a version that works for you today,

Just settle in,

Soften wherever you can.

This being a shorter yin practice,

The holds are not super long,

But typically we hold these poses for at least two minutes in a yin class.

So if this were a 90-minute class,

We might be here for closer to five minutes,

But honoring your time and this short practice,

Let's just take one more deep breath in,

Big exhale out.

If you're all the way back,

Reach toward your shins and slowly press yourself up.

Try not to twist on your way up.

And let's just press right back to hands and knees here.

We'll stretch it back,

Coming into a downward dog.

This can be passive,

Just a nice way to re-stretch the legs,

Get the blood rushing through the legs again,

And stretch out the spine.

From here,

I'd like to move into dragon pose.

So lift your right leg and step it all the way through between your hands.

Drop your back knee down.

If there's any tenderness or pain in the bottom knee,

You can slide something underneath it,

Like a prop if you have it,

Or roll your mat up underneath,

That works too.

And then we'll start here by bringing your hands onto your top thigh.

So this one might feel a bit more intense,

That's a good thing.

We like discomfort in yin,

We're going to settle into this for a little bit of time To again,

Really stretch into the front body and the psoas muscle on the left side.

So through the discomfort,

See where you can soften and settle.

And use as little effort as possible.

You can stay right where you are.

If you want to bring it into a twist,

Bring your hands down.

Walk your front foot a little wider out to the edge.

Twist option,

Right hand to the right side,

Just rolling the chest open.

Soften through the shoulder and elbow.

Great place to hang out.

If you would like to add on another stretch for your quad,

The left thigh,

You could bend your back knee,

Maybe reaching toward the outer foot.

So again,

That's a pretty intense one,

You decide what works.

This one will bring more of a twist into the body and more opening across the chest.

And definitely more intensity in your leg and your hip.

Wherever you are,

Not here for long.

Just soften and breathe.

Release your foot if you have it.

We'll bring the hand back down,

Just the last few breaths here.

With so much awareness,

Start to shift your hips back,

Feel that rebound.

Come back to hands and knees,

We'll curl the toes under,

Take a sweet little downward dog to stretch it out,

And really feel the difference side to side.

You want to even that out a little bit,

So let's take the other side,

Left leg lifts up and back.

Step between your hands,

Find your prop if you need it,

Under the bottom knee.

And again,

We'll start with hands on the top knee.

You might be feeling a bit of resistance coming up on this side,

If the first side was rather intense,

That's all good,

Just observe that.

I hope you can also hear the birds in the background.

I so love practicing outdoors in these locations where I get to connect with nature,

And they get to remind me to be present and in the moment.

Another thing that can help remind you is your breath,

So keep your breath with you,

Stay aware of it,

Especially if the mind is full today.

And again,

You can stay,

Or we'll come into the twist.

Right hand down,

Walk your left foot a little wider out,

Twisting to your left,

Same option to catch your foot if it works.

Release your foot,

Bring your left hand back down,

Slower than you want to,

Let's start to shift the hips back.

Stretch knee to the mat,

Curl your toes,

One more downward dog to even it out and stretch back.

And bring your knees right back down,

Let's start by sitting back on your heels.

Bring your hands to your glutes or your hips behind you,

So I'm going to offer a couple of options for camel pose,

This will be a really awakening posture,

It's a deep back bend.

So if you don't want to go too hardcore into this one,

The first option is to modify it by staying seated on your heels,

Really grounding down through your seat and lifting up out of your hips,

Drawing the chest up and back.

If you do want to go for more today,

Come up onto your knees,

Hands to your glutes as well,

And then lean back so that maybe your hands come all the way to your heels,

Make sure you're not forcing this one,

It can be a lot,

But this is kind of your morning espresso.

Your hips are over the knees,

Just be here with your breath,

Wherever you are.

If you're all the way back,

Let's bring hands to glutes first,

Slowly rise it back up,

Take a feed for a moment,

Back on your heels,

Place one hand on your belly,

One hand on your chest,

And just observe whatever shows up.

Now I told you that this shape creates a lot of energy,

You can probably hear a storm has started here in Thailand.

I'm going to use that as an invitation for us to come right into Shavasana,

Lay down on your back.

Namaste.

Reviews

Beautiful morning Yin Session, I feel energized and relaxed 😌 I liked the background sounds and the instructions were clear

I did this outside at my cottage on Mayne Island this morning…as the birds were chirping! A great start to my day 💛🙏🏼

Oh my gosh I love you. The storm came at the perfect time!

A lot of great stuff packed into a brief morning practice. Ty!

Loved this! Very meditative and left me feeling energized and ready for the day.

Hope you were ok after the storm. Great practice
Namaste

An intense practice, reminding me of Bernie Clark's words: Yin yoga is simple but not easy. Especially humbling in the morning 😁. Really energising and fun. Thanks again.