Gentle Morning Practice

A slow and gentle Yoga practice to awaken, energise, release any residual stagnant energy from sleeping and set an intention for the day ahead. We practice joint releasing movements, neck and eye exercises, seated cat-cow, seated spinal twists, and alternate nostril breathing. This practice can be done in bed when waking up, or on a mat.

Image by Clemara Studio

Transcript

Good morning and welcome to your practice. This is a gentle practice to awaken your body and mind and to guide you to set a positive intention for your day ahead. We'll be making some slow movements to wake up the body and then we'll practice some alternate nostril breathing to balance the mind. You don't need any props today but you might like to have a blanket or a pillow with you for support if you need it and you can do this practice to wake yourself up while you're still in bed, Or you can do it on a mat if you prefer. And although this is a practice for the morning it can be done at any other time of the day if that's more convenient for you. We're going to be moving very gently this morning but do remember to listen to your body and if anything doesn't feel right or causes you any sort of physical pain leave out that exercise and take a short rest until the next one. So let's begin lying comfortably on your back. If it feels good for you to relax into Shavasana bring your legs a little wider than hip distance apart with your feet relaxing out to the sides and take your arms a little away from the sides of your body with the palms of your hands facing upwards. If you'd like to take some support you could place a pillow or a cushion under your head or your knees or a rolled up blanket under your knees. And if Shavasana isn't the best position for you today then choose another position that works for you. Perhaps taking the soles of your feet together and letting the knees fall out to the sides or bringing the feet to the mat at hip distance apart and allowing the knees to fall in towards each other. We're going to begin with a few minutes of breathing so make sure that you're as comfortable as you can be. Now close your eyes and gently bring your awareness to your breath. Follow the breath as it flows in and out. Feel the gentle expansion and contraction of the chest as you inhale and exhale. And just notice how your breath is flowing for you today. Is it flowing more into your chest? Or more into your belly? Is the breath fast or slow? Shallow or deep? There's no need to analyse the breath or to try and change anything. Just observe it exactly as it is and follow the natural movement in and out. And now become aware of how the movement of the breath affects the whole of the body. Feel how the breath moves into the arms and the legs into the hands and the feet. Observe the subtle movements that happen throughout the whole of your body with every inhalation and exhalation. We'll spend a little bit longer here observing the breath flowing in and out. Feel the breath flowing into every cell of your body. And we're going to begin some gentle movements starting with the toes. And we're going to begin some gentle movements starting with the toes. So staying where you are and keeping the rest of your body still slowly begin to move your toes with the breath. As you exhale squeeze the toes in towards the soles of your feet and as you inhale pull the toes back towards the rest of your body. Exhale to squeeze the toes inwards. Inhale to pull the toes backwards. Do a few more of these. And relax the toes and now let's move the whole of the feet. As you exhale point the feet away from you and as you inhale push into the heels and pull the feet back towards your body. Exhale to point the feet away. Inhale push into the heels and pull the feet towards you. A few more of these. And relax the feet. And now just make some circles with the feet waking up the ankles. And some circles in the opposite direction. And relax the feet and just take a moment to feel into your feet and just take a moment to feel into your feet to notice any effects from those movements and sensations. Now bend the knees and bring the feet to the mat at hip distance with the knees pointing up towards the ceiling and gently rock the knees from side to side dropping the knees to the left and dropping the knees to the right. We'll go several times to each side. Bring the knees back to the centre and now bend the knees and bring the knees in towards the chest. Take the hands to the tops of the knees and start to make some circles with the legs. Feel the lower back massaging into the mat or the mattress beneath you. Now circle in the opposite direction. And now slowly roll over onto one side and make your way up to sitting. Come to a comfortable seated position. Perhaps with your legs crossed or kneeling. Whichever position feels best for you. Now we'll wake up the hands and the arms. Bring your arms out straight in front of you in line with your shoulders and as you exhale squeeze your fingers together into fists. As you inhale open the hands and spread the fingers wide. Do this a few more times. Exhale to squeeze the fingers together. Inhale to spread the fingers wide. And now squeeze the fingers back together making fists with the hands and keeping the elbows still make some circles with the wrists. And circle in the other direction. And now relax the hands, Bend the elbows and bring the hands to the shoulders with the elbows facing forward. On your next exhalation straighten the arms keeping the palms facing up. Inhale the hands back to the shoulders. Exhale the hands back to the shoulders. Do a few more of these. Exhale to straighten the arms. Inhale to bend the elbows and bring the hands back to the shoulders. And bring the hands back to the shoulders and make some circles with the elbows here. And some circles the other way. And release the arms. Bring the hands to rest on the thighs. And take a few breaths here to feel into your body and observe any effects from those movements. Notice any sensations. Any feelings of energy moving. And we're going to do some neck stretches now. So make sure that your spine is straight. And now draw your shoulders up towards your ears and relax the shoulders back down. Feel the shoulders and the shoulder blades relaxing so that there's space around the neck and the head. On your next exhalation keeping the rest of your body still drop your chin towards your chest until you feel a gentle stretch at the back of the neck. And inhale to lift the head and drop the head back to stretch into the front of the neck. We'll do a few more of these. Exhale the chin to the chest. Inhale the head back. And with your next exhalation bring the head back to normal. Now we'll stretch the sides of the neck. So keeping the shoulders still exhale the right ear towards the right shoulder. To stretch along the left side of the neck. Inhale the head to the centre and exhale the left ear towards the left shoulder. Inhale back to the centre and do a few more of these. Inhale the head back to the centre and we're going to do some eye exercises now. So if you've had your eyes closed as you practice open your eyes now and keeping your head still start to move your eyes between looking up and looking down. Look up as far as you can and look down as far as you can. And now we'll change the movement to move the eyes as far to the right as you can and as far to the left as you can. Keeping your head still just moving the eyes. And now draw a circle around the outer edge of your eye. Trace around the edge of the eye as carefully as you can. There may be some places that feel a bit more difficult to move over or that you find that you want to skip. And if you find one of those places just go back and make sure that you move over that area so that you make a complete circle around the outer edge of the eye and circle the opposite way. And relax the eyes. From here we'll wake up the spine with some seated cat-cows. So keeping your hands on your thighs exhale to drop your chin to your chest and round the back curling the spine into a C shape. Inhale to lift the chest forwards arch the back and look up towards the ceiling. We'll do a few more of these. Exhale the chin to the chest round the back inhale to lift the chest and look up. See if you can coordinate the breath with the movement so that you begin moving as you begin the breath and you finish moving as you finish the breath. After your next exhalation bring the spine back to a neutral position and we'll finish our movements with a twist. So keeping the spine straight now bring your left hand to your right knee and the right hand to the mat behind you. As you exhale begin to twist towards the right. We're still just waking up right now so there's no need to force a big twist. Just gently turn your upper body towards the right and your head to look over your right shoulder. Take your eyes as far to the right as they will go. Each time you inhale lengthen the spine to lift upwards and each time you exhale see if you can twist a little more. And exhale to come back to the centre and let's twist to the other side. So bring the right hand to the left knee and the left hand to the mat behind you. Inhale to straighten the spine and exhale to twist to the left. Turn the head to look over the left shoulder move the eyes to the left inhale to lengthen the spine exhale to twist and exhale back to the centre and close your eyes here and just take a moment to notice how your body's feeling to observe any effects from those movements. We're going to do some alternate nostril breathing to harmonise the left and right hemispheres of the brain and to encourage a calm and balanced mind for the day ahead. So first of all bring the thumb and index finger together on your left hand making the chin mudra and place the hand on your left thigh with the palm facing upwards. With the right hand we're going to make the Vishnu mudra. Bring the index and middle fingers into the palm keeping the thumb and the outer two fingers spreading outwards. We'll be using the right hand with the nose to help us to breathe through the separate nostrils. The thumb covers the right nostril and the outer fingers cover the left nostril but to begin with keep the hand in this position and rest the hand on the right leg. With the palm facing upwards. If your eyes are open gently close your eyes again and bring your awareness back to your breath. How is your breath flowing right now? Observe the movement of the chest as the breath flows in and out. Notice where the breath is flowing to. Into the belly or into the chest. Without changing anything to begin with just watch the breath as it flows. Now take a deep exhalation to feel all of the old air leaving your lungs and inhale deeply filling the chest all the way up to the collarbones. Exhale again and as you exhale bring your right hand up to your nose. At the end of the exhalation close your right nostril with your thumb and take a breath in through your left nostril. Now close your left nostril with the outer fingers and open your right nostril and exhale through the right side. Inhale through the right side and exhale through the left. Inhale through the left side exhale through the right side. Inhale through the right exhale through the left. Inhale through the left exhale through the right. Continue with this alternate nostril breathing in your own time changing sides after each inhalation. We'll continue breathing like this for another minute. Finish with an exhalation through the left side and release the hand and bring the breath back to normal. Take some normal breaths here to observe how you feel observe any feelings in your body observe your mind and now gently bring your awareness to the centre of your chest and just observe what's happening at your chest feel the rising and falling of the chest as you breathe in and out feel any sensations that arise for you at the centre of the chest the heart centre and keeping the awareness at the heart gently invite a positive intention to arise for yourself for today there is no need to force anything just allow your intention to come from your heart by itself as it comes perhaps it's a feeling you want to feel or a quality you want to embody a way you want to approach something whatever it is welcome your intention for today as it arises for you and welcome it however it comes perhaps as an image a feeling or a deep sense of knowing spend a moment now welcoming and acknowledging that intention and now slowly begin to turn the awareness back outwards acknowledge any sounds that you can hear in your environment around you feel the feeling of your body supported by the surface beneath you feel the sensation of the air against your skin and when you are ready slowly open your eyes this brings us to the end of this morning's practice thank you for joining me today

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌺🎀🌺🎀🌺Thank You so much for the wonderful practice 🎈🌸🎀it gives me smiles and so much pleasure 🌎have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste