Morning Standing Yoga Ritual

Once you start practicing yoga, your body craves movement and mobility. I designed this ritual to be short and simple enough to do daily, and open the key areas: the heart, hamstrings, and hips. The poses in this class are ragdoll, standing big toe, dancer, standing figure four. If you find this session valuable, I welcome your ratings and reviews so others can easily find it.

Transcript

Welcome to the Morning Standing Yoga Ritual.

This class can be done on any surface and you don't need a mat.

I often do these poses in the kitchen while I'm making coffee.

Once we experience the benefits of yoga,

Our body craves mobility and movement.

I designed this ritual to be short and simple enough to commit to memory and do on your own,

Holding each pose for 10 to 20 breaths,

Or you may come back and use the recording.

This is an audio yoga class.

You may choose to pause and Google the poses beforehand so you know what they look like.

The poses in this class are ragdoll,

Standing big toe,

Dancer,

And standing figure 4.

We'll start with ragdoll.

Place your feet hip distance apart and fold forward at the hips,

Letting your arms hang down,

Allowing your head to hang heavy.

Grab onto opposite elbows and keep a soft bend in your knees.

You'll feel a gentle opening in the backs of your legs.

If you'd like you can bend your knees deeper,

Allowing your belly to rest on your thighs.

Notice any tension in your shoulders and the back of your neck.

Let that go.

Close your eyes.

You can sway from side to side,

Or from front to back,

Into your toes,

Back into your heels.

So this pose is a great one to start with because it warms up our body for deeper poses.

It also alleviates low back pain and neck pain,

And releases tension.

Drop your fingertips down to the ground,

And slowly one vertebrae at a time,

Roll up to standing.

Our next pose is standing big toe.

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana.

Shift your weight onto the left side.

Lift your right leg up,

Pulling the knee in towards your belly.

And grab for your big toe with your index and middle fingers of your right hand.

Pause to find your balance,

Lifting up through your chest,

Pressing evenly through your standing leg.

Once you feel solid,

Start to press forward through your heel to bring your leg towards straight.

Move slowly and steadily.

If you lose your balance,

You can just come right back in.

And feel the stretch in your shoulder,

And in the back of your leg.

This is a very challenging posture that activates both the front and back body.

It allows us to activate our core and find balance.

And start to bend your knee,

Bring your knee in towards your chest,

Release your fingers.

Drop your foot back down to the mat,

And shake out your arms and your legs.

Shifting to the other side,

Move the weight into the right foot.

Pull the left knee in towards your chest.

Grab ahold of your big toe with your two fingers.

Find your balance.

Then start to press forward through your heel,

Bringing your leg towards straight.

Staying tall,

Opening up through your chest,

Lengthening through your spine.

You can find a drishti gaze,

Focusing on a point in front of you that's not moving.

Maybe a photo,

Maybe a spot on the carpet.

And bring your awareness to your breath,

Allowing that steady inhale,

Long exhale,

To create balance in the body and to find stillness.

So right now we're opening our hips and hamstrings,

Strengthening core,

And improving our balance and concentration.

And start to find a bend in your knee.

Release your leg back down to the ground.

Shake out your legs and your arms.

Moving into our next pose,

Madarajasana,

Dancer.

And shift the weight,

Again over to the left side.

This time kick your right heel towards your glutes and grab it from the inside arch.

And reach your left arm up and start to kick into your hand.

Moving slowly,

Lifting up and forward through your arm and kicking back and up through your foot.

Being sure to keep your raised foot flexed.

If you lose your balance and come out,

That just means you've reached your edge.

Slowly come back into the pose and find that edge once again.

Extend through your arm and leg as you inhale.

As you exhale,

Come a centimeter even deeper.

And as you start to come out,

Keep kicking into your hands,

Stretching forward through your fingertips.

Come out gradually and slowly and release your foot down.

And shake out your shoulders.

Shift to the other side.

Kick your left foot in towards your glutes.

Grab a hold of your foot with your hand,

Keeping your foot flexed.

Stretch your right arm up to the sky.

And as you kick into your hand,

Stretch your upper arm forward and up,

Finding that even balance.

This pose stretches your entire front body,

Your shoulders,

Your chest,

Your abdomen,

Your thighs,

While at the same time improving balance and focus.

Exhale all of that strength along your spine and that opening in your heart.

And as you start to come back out.

Guide your arm up to the sky,

Release your foot.

And shake out your legs and your arms.

Coming into our last pose,

Ardha Ukatasana,

Standing figure four.

Lift your right leg,

Lifting your knee to the height of your hips.

And cross your ankle over your opposite knee.

Keep your hands on your hips or bring them to heart center.

And sit back as if you're sitting into a chair.

Making sure that you can still see your standing toes in front of your knee.

So your knees should be stacked over your ankle.

And your hips reaching back.

And you can stay here or if you'd like to go deeper,

Start to bend forward,

Dropping your fingertips to the mat.

Still keeping that knee over the ankle.

You should feel deep stretch in the inner and outer hip.

Find some activation in your core as this challenges our balance.

Keep lifting through your chest,

Keeping your heart open.

If your fingertips are down,

Start to bring your hands back to heart center.

And up to standing.

And release your right foot down to the ground.

Switching to the other side,

Shift the weight to the right side.

Lift the left knee up to the height of your hips.

Cross the left ankle over the right knee.

And start to sit back and down.

Keeping your knees stacked over your ankle,

Lifting up through your chest.

Finding stability through your core.

And if you'd like to come deeper,

Drop your fingertips down to the mat as you pull forward.

This pose tones the nervous system.

When we hold it for longer,

It brings strength and mobility to our legs,

Hips,

And ankles,

Making them supple and flexible.

Start to bring your hands back to heart center,

If they're not already.

And rise back up to standing.

Release your left leg down.

You can shake out your arms and your legs.

And finally,

Inhale your arms up overhead for Tadasana.

Stretch them up high.

And release them down to heart center.

Bringing your gaze over your fingertips.

Express gratitude for this wonderful feeling that you've brought to your body today.

Just opening up.

We've opened up our hamstrings,

Our hips,

And our heart.

And now we're ready for whatever the day may bring us.

Our yoga class is complete.

If you find this session valuable,

I welcome your ratings and reviews so others can easily find it.

Have a great day.

Landing love.

Reviews

Great to use at night too with a few modifications to calm and soothe while still working on balance and strength ect

Brilliant! Great start to the day feeling stretched and relaxed. Thank you so much ❤️

Good balancing and hip openers! Perfect 15 minute practice

Glad I found this! Great morning practice for strength and concentration. Great cueing! Thank you 🙏🏾

This was surprisingly challenging. My muscles definitely feel fired up after trying to hold these balance poses for so long!

Hello beautiful 🎀🌺🎀🌺🎀Thank you so much for the wonderful yoga practice 🌞⭐️it gives me sunny feelings and so much smiles 🗺️ much love 🕉️Namaste

It was so wonderful to fully immerse myself in the instructions without the distraction of video or group settings. The soft, calming voice and gentle water sounds enabled me to clear my mind and concentrate on the guidance. I really appreciated it. Thank you.

Thank you- quick sequence that hit the spot for what I needed. Your verbal descriptions were just right to guide me into the poses

Thank you for the stretch and openings. Easy to follow . Dancer as always been a like challenging for me. 💕🧘‍♀️🙏🌹

Very nice to start the day with this vinyasa flow, Thank you 🙏🏼🤸🏻‍♀️✨

A lovely and simple way to wake up the body and breath. Thank you!

Awesome stretches for the day. Thank you