Wake Up With Grace

Start your day off with presence, ease in the body, and a deep connection to yourself. This morning meditation will guide you from lying down (in bed) to sitting upright to standing using gentle movements that aim to release sleepiness and build lifeforce energy within. Use this practice to begin your day with consciously with grace.

Transcript

Good morning.

Thank you for joining me for this meditation to wake up with grace.

This meditation is intended to take you from lying in bed to sitting upright and eventually standing and ready to embrace the day ahead.

So if you've already risen,

Go ahead and just lie back down and stretch your body out on your back.

And let's begin with a nice full breath in and just a complete breath out.

And then just notice how your body is lined up here.

You could draw an imaginary line down from the very crown of your head to the space right between your feet and see if you can align the left and right sides of your body symmetrically.

Just feel a bit of balance between those two sides of your body and how you're resting.

And then just let your feet flop open away from each other and bring your hands to gently rest over your torso.

Maybe one hand comes over the heart and one over the belly.

Whatever feels most comfortable and easy for you.

And then just begin to feel your breath coming in and flowing out.

And just stay with your breath for a few rounds here.

Let your hands sense the movement of your inhales and exhales.

Your torso sense the warmth of the hands.

And as you give your attention to the breath,

Say good morning to it.

Greet the breath,

This life-giving force.

And see if you feel any response.

How does the breath respond when you say hello to it?

Now spread your awareness down into your whole body.

You may even want to give your toes just a little wiggle to help you feel into your feet.

Maybe just a really small little wiggle in those fingers.

And even a little rocking of your head from side to side.

And as you generate these little micro movements in your body,

Becoming a bit more aware of your entire body this morning,

Say hello to it.

Good morning,

Body.

And notice here as well if there's any response from your body as you do this.

Good morning,

Body.

How are you today?

And sense your breath here,

Breathing in and out.

And I'm going to offer up an affirmation for you to express to your body if it resonates with you.

So just tuning in again to your whole body,

Your hands resting over your torso,

Holding yourself in a way.

The affirmation goes like this.

I choose to honor you today.

I commit to listening to what you need.

I commit to being kind to you.

I commit to loving you.

Just take a deep breath in through your nose,

Sigh it out through your mouth.

Feel these statements really sink into your body.

I choose to honor you today.

I commit to listening to what you need.

I commit to being kind to you.

I commit to loving you.

Good.

Now begin to circle out your ankles and go both directions here.

And then a little wiggle in those toes and you can kind of stretch your toes,

Spread your toes.

Breathing while you're doing this.

And as those feet begin to wake up,

Do the same with your wrists.

So circle out your wrists,

Let your fingers stretch and wiggle.

Feel those hands coming on line this morning fully.

And then let your head begin to rock a little bit side to side again.

And you can even do this in more of a stretchy way this time.

So you might roll your head to one side and just see if the neck can gently stretch and then to the other side.

Again keep tuning back into the breath,

Inhaling deeply and exhaling deeply,

Starting to feel your energy circulating a bit more.

Maybe your life force is beginning to build up inside for your day.

Great.

And then let your head rest back to center and pull the right knee into your chest and just hug it firmly against your body.

Take a nice full breath in here and as you breathe out,

You're going to just gently rotate that right leg over to the left for a really easy spinal twist.

And take a couple of breaths here,

Just kind of gently rinsing out your spine this morning,

Getting rid of any stagnant energy that maybe was accumulated as you were sleeping.

Let it feel good and then you're going to come back to center and release that leg out long and draw the left knee into your chest.

Take a breath in and breathing out,

Twist to the right,

Just feel your lower back gently stretching and just do the best with the space you have here and really remember to honor your body and only stretch as far as it feels comfortable for you in this moment.

You want to gently invite the body to come out of its slumber this morning.

Great.

Come back through center and then just hug both knees in towards your chest.

Do the best you can here.

Again,

It should just feel gentle.

It should feel comfortable.

And then however it's easiest for you,

You're going to start to roll yourself over onto one side and rise up to sit on the edge of your bed.

And if your feet reach the floor here,

You want to let your feet just really ground down,

Rest down on the floor and let your spine sit upright,

Nice and tall.

Take a breath in and out.

Good.

And then let's do some neck rolls.

So just let your head release in one direction and roll it around a few times.

And again,

Take this slowly,

Be gentle.

It's very common to be really tight in the morning when we wake up.

So all of these little movements are just helping to get your inner energy flowing,

To clear the fog,

To clear out the stagnant sleepy energy so that you can become clear,

Filled up with life force energy for the entire day ahead of you.

Good.

And then rotate directions if you've been circling your head just in one direction.

And maybe even let your shoulders move a little bit,

Just lifting,

Lowering the shoulders,

Stretching the shoulders away from the head as it rolls in one direction and then the opposite direction.

There's not really a right or wrong way to do this.

You're tuned into your own body and following what feels good.

Good.

And then pause that movement and just come back to a upright seated position here and take a breath in and out.

Maybe you release your jaw and just let it sigh out through the mouth.

And then rest your hands on your thighs and drop your chin to your chest.

And you're going to gently round your back.

And as you do this,

You could slide your hands down towards your knees.

It's just a really gentle movement,

Mostly through the upper back and the neck.

And then you can reverse that movement.

So you let your hands slide back on your thighs towards your hips.

So your elbows will bend.

And you're going to expand your chest,

Stretch your chest out and lift your chin a little bit,

Arching your back.

And just repeat that a couple of times.

And again,

This can be a really gentle movement.

Honor your body.

So slide the hands towards the knees.

You can breathe out,

Draw the chin to the chest and round your upper back.

And then slide your hands towards your hips,

Bending your elbows,

Expand your chest,

Look up,

Breathing in.

Good.

Getting your spine online this morning,

Helping to facilitate flow of energy along your central axis where there's a lot of powerful places,

Right?

Your pelvis,

Your belly,

Your heart,

Your neck,

Your head,

And there's powerful energetic centers all along your spine as well.

So we're just turning them all on this morning.

And then let yourself again just sit once in stillness here and breathe and notice how you're feeling.

And then when you're ready,

You're going to come to stand.

So just let your feet really touch down.

Feel yourself standing nice and tall.

Let yourself stand with confidence.

What does that mean to you?

How do you stand with confidence?

Your eyes may still be closed or they could be gently opened.

And then let's just take a nice big breath here as you stand firmly pressing into your feet and let your arms sweep out to the side and all the way overhead.

Reach way up through those fingertips.

And with your exhalation,

Draw the hands down through center into what's called Anjali Mudra,

A prayer position with the hands right in front of your chest.

Now breathe in through your nose,

Breathe out through your mouth as you stand here in the sacred position,

Holding the sacred gesture.

Feel the best version of you awake,

Alive and aware,

Ready to embrace the day ahead of you.

If your eyes are closed,

Let your eyes gently open and take one step forward.

This is a step forward into your day with grace.

Thank you so much for joining me for this meditation.

Namaste.

Reviews

I love this meditation with gentle stretching - the best way for me to wake up. ❤️

Felt really good to stretch first thing in the morning.

That was a great way to start my day. Thank you. Grace is such a warm and peaceful word.

Absolutely loved this new way of walking up, thank you so much

Thank you for a beautiful start to my day. I feel energized and vibrant. 🙏

Lovely way to start my day with awareness and grace. Thank you 🙏🏻

One of my favorite ways to start the day, for years. I am most grateful to you. Namaste 🙏

Hello beautiful 🌷⭐️🌷⭐️🌷Thank you so much for the wonderful good morning practice 🌞⭐️it gives my day sunshine and pleasure 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste

Enjoyed the waking and honoring of the body in this morning meditation…thank you🙏🏻

Amy, what a great way to wake up and start my day with ease and grace. Thanks for sharing this practice. My wife and I just welcomed our first child, Lincoln to the world. He’s been with us for 14 days and as you can imagine…we are in the trenches. I was up early feeding him this morning when I found this meditation. Instead of going back to bed sat with him and eased into my morning and spent some quality time with Lincoln. Thanks for sharing your passion with us. Blessings 🙏🏻

Loved it. Great start to the day to emerge from lying to sitting to standing 🙏 in have taken my first step into the day ❤️

Great way to wake up and greet the day! Thank you!

Good Stuff Leading me into uncharted territory….Much needed

By far the best waking up method I have encountered until today. Unique. Refreshing. The outcome is amazing. Thank you

Beautiful way to start my day. Body feels alive. I love the stretching. Thank you 🙏🏼

Always find myself coming back to this meditation.

I really loved the waking up of the body using the gentle stretching 🧘‍♂️

A really nice way to start the day. Namaste Blessed Be

Really enjoyed waking up with this meditation. The slow movements really made me tune into my body. Thank you.

That was beautiful. What a sacred way to arise! Namaste 🙏