Soften Into Your Day: A Gentle Morning Yoga Practice

A short, unhurried movement practice to ease the body awake before your day or your meditation. Working mostly from the floor, you'll open the hips, mobilize the spine through cat and cow, and gently activate the core and glutes before rising to ground through the feet and wake the torso. Rather than jolting out of bed into frenetic energy, this practice helps you arrive in your body softly and set a calm, intentional tone. You'll finish feeling grounded, circulated, and ready to either step into your day or settle into stillness. No mat required.

Transcript

So this is a short morning practice to just kind of get the body moving so you can. Either prepare for your day or prepare for meditation. So let's get started. So a lot of the times, You just get out of bed, It's just kind of like, You don't want to jump. You don't want to do anything too erratic. So just kind of. . . Sit for a moment comfortably. You don't even need a mat. And just kind of take a few deep breaths. And when I say take some deep breaths, Just allow that. Energy just has kind of come down. And then hold the bottom. And just feel that lift as well in the pelvic floor. And then exhale. So it's that exchange of prana and apana. With your spine straight. Shoulders rolling open. And we set the intention to. . . Just gently and open the body just enough to cultivate. Beneficial qualities such as compassion, Truth. And love. One more deep breath. So let's just kind of roll onto all fours. And just kind of shake out the hips. Just a little bit. And typically in a. . . Longer practice I'll have people turn the wrists around to kind of warm up their wrist. We're really not going to be on our hands for too long. Just a can of. Open. Get that synovial fluid. Going throughout the and then taking a couple of cat and cow, So inhale. Exhale, Pressing through the hands and just feeling the upper back and the belly rise towards the ceiling. Inhale, Open the chest. Just feel the shoulders roll open here. And then belly goes towards the floor. Just waking up the spine a little bit. You can do it a little bit faster or slower. And. . . This is where we're going to open up the hips a little bit more. So draw the left. Knee into your left elbow. And just kick it back. So you're activating in the core a little bit. So it's like a little bit of a half crunch, Half bicycle. And then draw the left foot out towards the side and so it's Kind of acting like a kickstand, Just feel that for a moment. Breathe here. And just all attention in the body, Just knowing. Just kind of feeling those little sensations maybe in their thigh. In the foot. And then drawing a circle. A semicircle. Outer blade of the left foot. Behind. So it's basically like a diagonal. Only look down, Look over your right shoulder. To your left foot and just feel that just a little bit of a tugging of your outer left hip. And you might feel it somewhere else, Maybe in your right hip. Oops, Few breaths here. And then drawing the knee back towards the elbow. And then see if you can raise the hip like a. . . Fire hydrant. Dog peeing on the fire hydrant. And then down. So I'm going to flip around so you can see this on the other side. The pain. So you're drawing the right knee into the right elbow. Right knee into the right elbow. And then drawing it back. Hmph. Just feeling that just a little bit of activation in the core. And then drawing the right foot out to the side and just feeling that nice little Opening. So, So often we may jerk out of bed, But just kind of waking up a little softly a few mornings. Kind of sets the day straight so you're not walking around with this frenetic energy. You're kind of grounding yourself first. And then drawing the right foot, The right leg around to the left. And planting the outer foot looking at your foot. Over your left shoulder and just feeling what you're feeling. Noticing. Deep breaths. And one more drawing the knee to the right elbow and then see if you can open it high and then the right knee down. So I'm going to flip around here again. So let's check the toes. And just kind of feel your feet. The feet get stuck. A lot of pressure in it through the day and just see if you can just Just spread the toes wide. And if you can sit up, You can go ahead and sit up. But it might be a little too early for that. Just notice here. Ugh. And then from here, You can just maybe come up. And just do a little bit of a back bend like camel pose. And then sit down. Open. So just kind of pressing the hips forward. Thighs forward, Not as much your lower back. Lots of times when we lack the flexibility in the hips, We dump into the lower back. Let's just see if we can. Just kind of press the hips forward. This happens with a lot of sitting. And lengthen the movement with the breath, Pressing the hips forward. You might even feel a little bit of glute engagement. Hmm. And then place your hands on the floor or your mat. And then tuck your toes. Well, Your toes are already tucked. Straighten your legs. And then come into a nice forward fold. And just kind of swing your hips back and forth here. And bending your knees a lot to kind of See how the knees are failing? Pedal to the seat. And then slowly, Like a rag doll. Or roll yourself up to standing. And then here, Get to the heart. Sense of grounding in the feet. I like to raise. My heels a little bit, And then raise the toes. So in other words, You're kind of coming onto the heels. Opening the toes like this. Because lots of times our shoes are a little constricting. Open the toes, Let's come up, Off, Just not a lot. And then finally, We're going to do a little bit of waking. Of the torso. And You're just going to kind of sway back and forth. And just feel like the hips and the torso, The shoulders. Getting. A little bit of action, Activation. And then as you make it a little bit more vigorous, See if you can smack below your ribs. On the opposite side. You can even make it. A lot more vigorous that this is not necessary. And keep going. Just a little bit of activation. Alright, And then slow it down. And then just be still for a moment. Just feel that little bit of bubbling. And now you can go out the rest of your day, Or you can join me for a meditation practice.