Lazy Morning Yoga

A gentle wake-up session which can be done on a mat or while you're still in bed. This slow practice guides you through a series of postures to gradually awaken your body as you quietly transition into the day. We practice supta baddha konasana, reclining twist, sphinx, child's pose, cat-cow, downward-facing dog, upward-facing dog, seated twist, upavistha konasana, paschimottanasana, staggered breathing and savasana.

Transcript

Good morning and welcome to your practice. So this is a morning practice to help awaken your body and to clear away any stagnant energy from the night. And you can do this when you're still in bed. Or on a yoga mat, Whichever feels best for you today. We're going to begin lying on our backs in Supta Baddha Konasana. So bring the soles of your feet together so that your knees open out to the sides. And if it feels best for you to support your legs here take some blocks or some cushions under your thighs so that your legs can just relax down. You can keep your arms at the sides of your body or you can bring the arms over your head keeping a slight bend at the elbows and just bring your awareness to your breath. And start to gently deepen the breath as you ease into your first posture of the morning. Watch the breath flowing in and out. You Watch the breath flowing all the way up your body from the lower abdomen up through the lungs, Through the chest, Up to the collarbones. And watch the breath flowing back out again Welcoming the life force. The prana that is being delivered into your body with every breath Notice where your breath naturally flows to as it comes in and out. Flow into your belly or your chest. Does it move into another part of your body? Just watch. Just acknowledge. Where the breath is flowing. Where the breath is delivering the prana this morning. If your body is feeling a bit stiff this morning if there are any places that feel a bit tense after your night of sleep Now start to breathe into those tighter places send your inhale into the tension And as you exhale, Feel some of that tension beginning to release and continue breathing like this for a couple of minutes more Sending the breath into any areas of the body that need it. Feeling the exhalation beginning to encourage a release of tension. Bring your arms to the outside of your legs Push the knees together. And then bring your feet to the mat or the mattress with the feet and hip distance apart and just gently rock the knees from side to side and take your arms in line with your shoulders with the palms facing upwards so making a t-shape now just let your legs drop towards the left So coming into a very gentle twist. If you want to stretch a little bit more deeply you can take your left foot to rest on the right side. You can keep your head looking straight up. Or turn to look over your right shoulder. And just relax into the posture here and keep sending the breath to wherever it needs to go. Just allowing the exhalation to encourage any tension to unwind and release Bring the legs back to the centre and drop the knees to the right so either keeping the right foot on the mat or resting the foot onto the left thigh and turning to look over the left shoulder if that feels comfortable in your neck. I'm taking some breaths here If your right foot is on the left thigh, Bring the right foot back to the mat or the mattress. Bring the knees back to the centre. Bend the knees, Bring the knees in towards your chest. Take your hands onto your knees and make some circles with the legs. And some circles in the opposite direction. Roll to one side and come onto your front for sphinx pose. So for Sphinx bring the elbows under your shoulders and the forearms parallel to the sides of the mat so that your chest lifts up If this feels intense for your back, You can walk the arms forwards to lessen the intensity. You can even stack the arms and rest your forehead onto your forearms. Find where your body most wants to be for this next couple of minutes. Remember that you're still waking up so you don't need to be in a big intense stretch. Just getting used to moving the body and opening up the body and the energy channels for the day keep breathing into any tight or uncomfortable areas. You have the option to stay like this or if you want a slightly different stretch you can bend the knees and point the toes up towards the ceiling whichever feels best for your body this morning. If your legs are lifted, Release the legs back down. And then take your hands under your shoulders to push up onto your hands and knees We're going to come into a wide child's pose. Bring your big toes together, Open the knees to the sides. Sit back onto your heels and bring the chest and the forehead down towards the mat, Reaching the arms forwards. You can take some support here. You can place a block or a pillow onto your heels to sit back onto. You can support your head with a block or a pillow or you can stack your arms and rest your forehead onto your forearms. Keep breathing into any tension or discomfort working with the exhalation. We will just stay here for a few more breaths. Walk your hands in to come back to your hands and knees. And just check that you are aligned here with your wrists under your shoulders and your knees under your hips and your toes pointing away we'll do some cat cows here so as you inhale drop your belly bring the chest forwards and look up and exhale bring your chin to your chest and arch and round the back A few more of these, Inhale the chest forwards to look up Exhale round the back, Bring the chin to the chest Just doing some more in your own time. And coming back to a neutral spine. We're going to come into downward facing dog So spreading your fingers wide here, Just check that there is some weight going into your hands. Tune in with the base of your thumb and the bases of your fingers and make sure some weight is pressing down into the bases of the fingers and the thumb. Turn your toes under behind Take a breath in and as you exhale lift your hips up into the air. And staying on your toes to begin with. Press your hips up as high as you can. Use the weight in your hands to lever the hips up and away from you. Relax the neck and the head so the top of your head releases towards the mat. And then keeping that feeling of height in the hips begin to lower the heels towards the mat to straighten the backs of the legs So you have a long stretch through the backs of the legs and a long stretch through the spine keep pressing the hips up and away you On your next exhalation bend the knees, Bring the knees to the mat we're going to come into upward facing dog so from here bring your chest forwards through the armpit and press into the hands to lift the chest look up towards the ceiling So feeling a long lift from the pelvic floor all the way up through the front of the body, Through the chest, Up to the neck and the head the shoulders and the shoulder blades relax and exhale to sit back to your heels and rest your forehead down into child's pose and take some resting breaths here either keeping your head on the mat or stacking the forearms and resting the head onto the forearms Let's do that sequence a couple more times. So coming back to your hands and knees. Turn the toes under and exhale to lift the hips and release the head into a downward facing dog. And this time if you want to stretch out the backs of the legs a bit more you can pedal the legs alternating between lifting one heel and keeping the opposite heel pressing towards the mat. And now press both heels towards the mat. On your exhalation, Bend the knees, Take the knees to the mat and we're coming forward to upward facing dog. Bring the chest between the armpits, Lift the chest. Using the strength in your arms here to encourage the chest to lift and open Feeling the collarbones widen. And exhale back to the heels back into child's pose and take a few breaths here And we'll do that one more time. So coming back to your hands and knees, Turning the toes under, Exhale, Lift the hips, Release the head into your downward facing dog. Just noticing the difference between this time and the first time you came into this posture today. Exhale bend the knees take the knees to the mat point the toes away swing the chest forwards into upward facing dog and sitting back to the heels into child's pose for a few resting breaths and take your hands to the outside of the knees and slowly curl up vertebrae by vertebrae. Feeling each bone of your spine stacking up into a straight line And then the shoulders, The neck and the head are the last things to come up. And then come to sitting with your legs crossed So if it's more comfortable for you to take some support you can sit onto a block or a cushion here to elevate your hips. That can sometimes feel a lot more comfortable to be able to straighten the spine with the legs crossed. And we're going to come into a twist here so take your left hand to rest on your right leg and bring your right hand behind your back and just press into the fingers of the right hand here to lengthen the spine to straight Take a breath in to lift the spine. And exhale begin to twist towards the right so moving from the waist from the chest, The shoulders. And taking the neck and the head to the right. And take your eyes towards the right. Each time you inhale feel the spine is lengthening Each time you exhale, See if you can move a little further into the twist. And exhale to come back to the centre and change the cross of your legs so whichever leg is in front change the crossing so the opposite leg is the one that's in front And we'll go to the left, So bring the right hand to the left knee, Bring the left hand behind, Pressing into the left fingers to lengthen the spine up. On your exhalation twist to the left turning the head towards the left taking the eyes to the left lifting and lengthening with each inhalation twisting with the exhalation. Slowly unwind back to the centre We're going to open the legs wide now, So taking the legs apart You can sit onto some support here if it feels challenging to sit with your spine straight. Sitting onto a block or onto a cushion or a folded blanket can help. To bring more comfort for your back. Press out through the heels of the feet and draw the toes back towards your body. And if this is already giving you an intense enough stretch then you're welcome to stay sitting up right here Otherwise we're going to fold forward. Take a breath in to lift the spine keeping the spine straight as you exhale start to come forwards as if you're encouraging the center of your chest towards the mat to take your hands to your legs or your feet wherever they come to here each time you inhale feel the spine lifting and lengthening Each time you exhale, Encourage the chest a little further forward. Keep the thighs connected to the mat. Keep the sitting bones connected to the mat. Keep the feet active. And inhale to come back up keeping the spine straight And then we'll bring the legs together for Paschimottanasana. So keeping the legs straight, Keeping the feet active, The toes pointing up to the ceiling and take a breath in here, Bring the arms up. Stretch up through the fingers, Lengthen the spine and exhale to come forwards imagining that your chest is going to meet your toes Let the hands come to wherever they come to, To the legs the ankles or to the feet. Keep lengthening the spine with each inhalation. The chest coming forwards with each exhalation. And inhale to come back up and then bring yourself into any comfortable sitting position. We're going to do some breathing. So take any support that you need to be able to sit comfortably for the next few minutes. So that you won't feel distracted by your body while you focus on your breath. We're going to do some staggered breathing. So this one is not recommended if you have high blood pressure. So if you do have high blood pressure then just do some normal deep breathing instead of this one. Closing your eyes here bring your awareness to your breath just notice how your breath is flowing right now Watch the air coming in and going out. And take a long exhalation. As you exhale feel all of the old air leaving your lungs And then take a long inhalation into your belly, Into your chest, Up to your collarbone. We're going to stagger the exhalation so as you breathe out now just breathe out for a moment and then pause and hold the breath. Breathe out a little more and pause. Exhale and pause. Exhale and pause. Exhale and pause. Continue staggering the exhalation until your lungs are empty. Take a long deep inhalation. We'll stagger the exhalation again exhale and pause Exhale and pause. Exhale and pause. Exhale and pause. Exhale. Importance. Continuing to stagger the exhalation until the lungs are empty. And take another long deep inhalation So do a few more breaths like this in your own time. Staggering the exhalations and taking long, Smooth, Complete inhalations. After the next exhalation bring the breathing back to normal. Just take a moment here to observe any effects from that practice. We're going to stagger the inhalation this time so on your next exhalation make it a deep exhalation releasing all of the air and then inhale for a moment and pause. Inhale and pull. Inhale and pause. Inhale and pull. Continue pausing as you inhale until the lungs are full. And then exhale completely. And again inhale a little and pause Inhale and pulse. Inhale and pause. Inhale and pause. And continue staggering the inhalation when the lungs are firm. Exhale completely. And continue with a few more breaths like this Staggering the inhalation. Long smooth exhalations. And after the next exhalation, Bring the breathing back to normal. Take a moment to observe any effects in your body or in your mind from that practice. And we'll finish with Shavasana, So make your way down to lying on your back. You can come to lying with your legs apart and your arms at the sides. If it feels better for your back, Bring your feet to the mat and drop the knees together. Take anything that you need to make sure that you're going to be warm. To make sure that you're going to be comfortable. You can support your head with a block or a pillow. You can put a rolled up blanket under the knees. And just feel the feeling of your body settling into the surface beneath you This is the most important part of the practice where you integrate all of the work that you've done. You have these next few minutes to just enjoy being here. So enjoy the feeling of your body resting. And to enjoy this process of your body waking up for the day. Start to make some small movements to awaken your body. Moving the fingers and the toes. Hands and the feet. Bring your arms over your head and give yourself a long stretch through the side Then bend the knees, Bring the knees in towards the chest, Hug the knees and rock from side to side. Easing out the lower back keeping your eyes closed, Roll over to your right side Bring yourself up to sitting. So just coming to sitting with the spine straight, With the eyes closed. Bring the palms of your hands together in front of your chest. And think of three things that you already feel grateful for today. Rub the hands together to create a feeling of heat between the hands. And when you feel that heat bring the hands over your closed eyes And with your hands over your eyes, Open the eyes to receive that prana from the hands. And slowly release the hands to welcome the light of the morning. This brings us to the end of the practice. Thank you for joining me today.