Good morning and welcome to this gentle yoga practice.
This practice is designed to help you get moving and feeling good for the day ahead.
You don't need any props for this practice,
But if you do have a blanket,
You might enjoy having that for your knees and kneeling poses.
And if you like to use blocks and folds,
Have some near the feet end of your mat.
We're going to begin reclining,
So lying on your back,
Please.
Just take your time to get down there.
And to get settled,
I invite you to have a bend in your knees,
Feet flat on the floor,
And just to shuffle your shoulders and hips a little bit so that you feel settled and comfortable.
When you get positioned in your torso and your legs.
And just a little check of the position of your head,
Perhaps slightly tuck your chin.
Towards your chest.
Rest your hands by your side.
With your palms facing up.
On your next exhale,
Feel your shoulders and your hips relax.
Follow the breath all the way to completion.
And breathe in through your nose if you can Filling up as if you could fill up your belly first.
And then into your ribs and chest.
Exhale slowly through your nose.
And the shoulders and the hips relax,
Follow the breath all the way to completion again.
In this slow and steady inhale.
Filling our belly,
Ribs and chest.
And again,
Follow your exhale.
And invite the torso to expand on your inhale.
You can pull both knees in towards you.
Hold on to the knees,
Just below the knees,
The bifurcations.
Or if your knees feel a little bit tight,
You could hold on to your thighs too.
And start to circle your knees around.
So go into the right.
And away from you.
Put a laugh.
And in towards you.
Just breathing steadily as you do this.
Your circles can be.
As big or as small as you like.
This is just to bring a little bit of movement into your low back.
We'll do about five circles around to the right.
Take both hands around the right knee or thigh and extend your left leg all the way out to rest on the floor.
You can start to pull the knee in towards your torso.
Roll your shoulders down towards the ground.
You can start to circle your right foot around now,
Just moving your ankle.
Doesn't matter which way you're circling with your ankle.
Because you can switch to the opposite direction.
Keeping this right knee in,
So the one you've got a hold of stays where it is,
Put the left foot back on the floor with your knee bent.
Place your right ankle on top.
Of just above the left knee there,
The left thigh,
In a figure four shape.
If you wish you can remain here,
Rest the hands either by your sides or on your belly.
Or you can pull the left leg in towards you for support.
A slightly deeper stretch into the right hip.
So fake a forehead stretch.
If you lifted your torso to reach for your thigh,
Make sure that your head is repositioned so your neck feels nice and long again.
Let's release the hold of the thigh if you took it.
Place the right arm into a 90 degree bend like a cactus shape.
Keep your finger forward on your legs if you can and let both legs go over to the left for a twist.
The right foot finds the ground and if it's hovering you might take a block or something nearby that you can place under it.
Or you can always unravel the figure four if it feels a little bit too much for this time of day.
You can relax your left arm to the side or some of you may enjoy left hand holding your right ankle which can help to really target tightness around the right waist and outer hip.
Just for the next few breaths,
You could also turn your head to the right to complete the twist all the way into your neck.
And turn your head back to centre.
Bring your legs back to centre and unwind them.
That can happen in any order.
Put your feet both flat onto the floor,
Knees bent,
Just how we started.
Now place your hands with your palms facing down next to your sides.
Root down through all four corners of each foot.
And lift up your hips as you breathe in,
Giving a light squeeze to the glutes.
Just rising as high as far or as high as you feel comfortable.
It could be a little or a lot.
And slowly roll down your back,
Upper back to middle back.
Towards your lower back.
Exhale all the way down to the hips.
Release,
Relax here.
We'll try that again.
So on your next inhale,
Press through your feet.
Breathe into your back body.
If you feel like it's compressing your low back too much,
Either go lower or feel like you're lengthening your tailbone towards the back of your knees a bit.
Keep breathing as you're lifted,
Deep breath in.
And start to roll upper back to middle back,
All the way down slowly.
Towards your lower back,
All the way towards your hip if you need to breathe again,
That's okay,
Until you rest fully on the floor.
We'll pull both knees in towards us,
Hold on to the knees again,
The shins or the thighs and start to circle now in left side.
So left,
Away,
Right,
In.
If you already did this slide the first time,
Just go the opposite direction.
And remember they can be as big or as small as you like.
Focus on the sensation.
Across your low back that feels pleasant and welcome.
And transfer both hands to the left knee.
Or left thigh and extend your right leg all the way out.
Rest your heel down.
Relax the leg.
Shoulders roll down towards the mat too and then you can start to circle your left foot.
Either way works.
Just as if you're drawing big circles with your left toes.
And of course,
Remembering to breathe.
And go the opposite way.
Good and then bringing your right foot back in to rest on the floor.
So it comes back to that knee bent position,
Foot grounded and your left ankle comes to rest up on top of that.
Thighs,
So just above the knee and a figure four shape.
You're welcome to stay here if this feels best to you today.
Or you can pull the right leg in if you like that version.
There's no sense of striving.
Feeling like you should do a certain pose,
Really listen to your body and what feels good today.
And let's release the hold of the thigh if you did take it.
You can pop your foot back on the floor.
Left arm goes into that 90 degree bend,
So it's like a goal post in the left arm.
And you can let both legs come over to the right.
So the sole of the left foot might land on the ground.
If it doesn't,
You can hover.
You could put a block under it or you could unravel the legs if that feels better.
Relax through the outside of your right hip.
You also have the option to hold your left ankle with your right hand if you want to.
Turn your head to the left.
And breathe.
Relaxing through the hips,
Especially the left waist.
And turn your head back to centre.
At some point you'll come up and unravel,
Doesn't matter which order you do that in.
Tummy and you can start to make your way up gradually to sitting so you can roll to your side and press up.
Or you can rock up and down.
We're going to turn around to a tabletop.
Coming over to all fours.
Place the hands right under your shoulders and hips right over your knees.
Let's begin from cats and cows.
Tailbone and head can lift as you breathe in.
Allow your belly to drop down.
And draw the navel up to the ceiling as you exhale,
Chin towards your chest.
Take your time with your breath here,
Yogis.
Inhale and out.
And exhale to round.
And again inhale and out.
Exhale and round.
Come to neutral.
Turn your hands to the side.
So your fingers all face outwards.
Rock over towards your right side,
Just stretch your wrist and look towards your left hand as you do.
We'll go over to the other side.
Lean over to the left and look to your right.
And be just really gentle with your wrists here.
Go over to the right and look to the left.
And over to the left.
And look to the right.
Get to come back to neutral,
Fingers facing forwards.
Draw the navel up a little bit so you've got some support for your low back.
You can choose to hold here in a tabletop if this feels best for your body today.
If you have down dog in your practice,
Lengthen out a little bit,
Walk your hands forwards a few inches,
Tuck your toes under and lift your hips up.
Looking back towards your feet.
Remember to elevate your shoulders in Down Dog.
So the shoulders lift up towards your ears,
Giving you a nice,
Stable and strong base.
Maybe have your knees a bit bent,
Especially if it's early in the day and you're feeling a lot of tightness in your back body.
And then you're free to wiggle and to move.
If you're in your tabletop instead,
You can be moving intuitively also.
Just open up gradually,
See what's happening in your body today.
Smiling to whatever you encounter.
Lastly,
If you did lift the down dog,
Please lower down carefully.
And all the way back to a child's pose.
If child's pose is a little too intense for your knees,
You're welcome to take a seated child's pose instead when you sit on the mat and hug your knees.
In 40.
If you enjoy.
Child's pose,
Kneeling.
Please make your way there.
Direct your breath all the way towards the lowest part of your back,
Low back into your sides.
Bye!
And just one more deep breath here,
Please.
We start to rise up.
Through your table.
If your knees were out,
Bring them back in.
Tuck your toes under behind you.
I'm going to walk your hands to the back of your mat towards your knees.
And lift up your knees and your hips.
We'll end up in a dangling pose.
Knees quite generously bent.
If with your knees bent the floor is a long way away you could bring your blocks in at this point.
In dangle pose,
You do not have to have support,
So you're welcome to just let the arms hang.
And again,
This is just a lovely,
Hopefully,
Lovely stretch to release tension from your low back.
Let your head be heavy,
Bringing a gentle traction to the whole spine.
See how your breath can create the sensations of release and stretch.
And we'll come all the way up to standing.
Take your time and then lift the hands all the way to the ceiling.
Open up in your front,
Big breath in.
And the hands to your heart.
Head the elbows wide like a cactus.
Lift up your chest.
Breathe in.
Soften your knees and squeeze your glutes.
Bring your hands together for preposition exhale.
Let's do that a couple of times more,
Just starting to move some breath.
Inhale,
Open up your front,
Squeeze your shoulder blades together.
Exhale,
Hands to heart.
Inhale,
Open up.
Be as expansive as you wish,
Take up some space,
Hands to heart.
Or drop the hands down by your sides.
Turn your palms out and circle them out and up to the ceiling.
Inhale and come now into forward fold.
So this again could be where you utilize your blocks to bring the ground to you.
Tilting the pelvis forwards and not forcing anything.
So you're looking to keep spine nice and neutral,
Spacious.
Not overly rounded is what I mean there.
It may be better to be higher in moderate sensation than really reaching and rounded.
Just a couple more breaths here in your forward fold.
You can always bend your knees again and dangle if that felt better to you.
You can walk your blocks forwards and off the sides of your mat.
And crawl your way back down to kneeling.
And I didn't mention when we did our tabletop before that you could have a blanket under your knees.
And so.
.
.
Hopefully you did if you needed it.
Let's do that now if you'd like to,
If you haven't already and you'd like your blanket there.
Now your blocks,
If you have them,
You can use in this next pose.
If you don't have them,
That's fine.
We're going to slide your right foot forwards and into a lunge.
Keeping the back knee down,
Start to sink forwards and down.
So with blocks,
You can keep your torso a little bit higher.
If you don't have blocks,
Your hands can be on the floor.
Or you could choose to climb your hands up onto your knee.
So find a height that feels just right for you.
And here we're looking to bring a little bit of space and stretch into the front of your left hip flexors.
So you're sinking gradually forwards and down into that front foot,
Hips towards your right heel.
Your shoulders can roll down away from your ears,
The gentle pull together.
Again,
Bringing some space into the chest and the front body.
You can lift your hips out of the intensity of that.
Tuck your back toes under.
And lift your back knee up.
Turn your weight to your left side so you end up facing the long side of your mat.
If you had blocks,
You might have traveled with them or you can leave from where they were.
Sink your way down into a wide-legged fold.
You do not need to move your blanket if you're using one.
It'll be fine.
Breathe here.
Space and lengthen your inhale.
Gently stretching into depth on your exhale.
We'll climb our way up gradually and into a star pose,
Another great morning pose to wake you up.
Open up nice and big through the fingertips,
Out wide,
Be a star.
And sit over in a handstand to press.
Turn your heels in and toes out.
Bend your knees as much as you want to into horse pose,
Keeping your torso quite upright if you can,
Rather than leaning forwards.
Just see what you can do.
We'll come back up to star,
Kick your heels out,
Open up,
Take a big breath in,
And as you exhale,
Bring your hands in.
Heels in a little bit,
Sit down into your horse pose.
And one more time,
Open this up,
Star pose.
And into your heart.
We're just going to find a height we can hold for five.
Zip up the front of the belly a little bit,
Four,
And relax the shoulders,
Three.
Maybe a boogie side to side could help too.
And one,
Well done.
Straighten your legs,
Kick your heels out and fall forward.
You can reposition your blanket a little bit.
And grab your blocks so you can bring your blanket slightly more towards the Which foot is that?
Your right foot.
I'm going to turn to the left.
Walk around there with your blocks,
Lower the right knee down onto the blanket.
Start to sink down again.
You're back in your low lunge now on your other side.
And the same options apply.
You can have your hands on the floor.
You could grab some books or blocks.
Or you can have your hands on that front thigh.
Your main focus is to move forwards and down to stretch through the front of the hip flexors and what helps with that is feeling this.
Lifting for ribs and the chest.
Without hiking your shoulders up.
Keep your shoulders relaxed.
Just a couple more breaths here.
Ease your way out.
We're going to do the same thing again.
You don't need your blocks unless you need them for that fold.
You can just pop into the side.
Tuck your back toes,
The right toes.
Lift your knee and spin to the long side of your mat,
Back to the right.
This is the same way we were facing a minute ago.
Lengthen out like you're doing a halfway lift.
Lengthen from tailbone to crown.
Ribs pull in.
Exhale,
Fold.
If you like to clasp your hands in this,
Releasing or holding behind your back and giving the shoulders a stretch you can.
Be quite an intense variation,
So move cautiously if you choose to do that.
Remember in your practice you are always in control of the poses and what you choose to do.
It's always wise to listen to your body.
So that your practice is benefiting you and helping you to feel better.
If you did clasp your hands,
You can release them firstly via your low back and then to the floor.
And we're going to stand up two star once again,
Opening up Make it now.
Exhale hands.
Heart.
We're going to take another variation of horse now,
So heels in,
Toes out.
And bend just to where whichever height you feel safe at wherever you feel good at and you'll lean forwards a bit as you rest your hands onto your knees and you can just Shimmy side to side.
Make sure you feel comfortable.
Part of this is turning your feet out.
To the degree that your knees naturally want to turn,
So your feet match your knees,
Not the other way around.
Turn both hands to face the inside of the knees or hold the inside of the knees.
I'm going to drop the right shoulder in towards the middle and look over your left.
Inhale,
Come back to center.
And take the other side.
Left shoulder to the middle,
Look over your right.
So this can help to try and release some tension from the middle and upper back.
Inhale back to center.
Let's try it one more time each side.
Right shoulder in.
Exhale.
Inhale to the middle.
Try your left shoulder.
Pressing out with the left hand a bit.
Good,
Come back to synth world and straight now to like,
Stop her.
Joy and energy for your day.
Kick your heels out and fall forward.
And we can turn back to the front of your mat.
Lower your left knee down.
Slide your right foot back to where it came from.
And switch your position to sitting,
Please.
And sitting cross-legged.
So you'll take a moment to settle just like we did at the very start,
Perhaps some wiggles and shimmies.
If cross leg doesn't feel good to you,
Please feel free to adjust the pose and sit either maybe with your legs all the way out or even knees bent in front of you.
These poses work Either way.
So you take the left hand up to the ceiling as you breathe in.
And start to twist,
Bringing it across to the opposite knee,
Right hand behind you.
Rise tall through your crown when you inhale.
And look all the way back past your shoulder when you exhale.
We'll turn forwards,
Lift the right hand up and you can either keep your hand on your knee here or especially if your legs aren't crossed,
Your left hand can come back to the side of you.
Side body stretch.
One more breath towards the right waist,
Right ribs.
Nor come up.
The right hand's already up,
Ready for you to twist.
Right hand to left knee,
Left hand behind you,
Rotate.
Relax your shoulders down.
Take one more full breath.
You can turn your chest forwards,
Lift the left hand up,
The right one can stay where it is or you can come next to you and side body stretch.
And breathe towards the left waist.
Exhale,
Reach.
Inhale back up and let your arms come down.
Now if you are cross-legged,
Take a second to switch your cross.
We'll take the hands together,
Interlace them and press your palms forward.
Tuck your chin towards your chest.
Press your hands forward,
But it's almost like the center of your chest is leaning backwards away from the hands.
Getting a little shoulder stretching here.
And your breath doing much of the work.
And sit up tall.
Lift your palms up towards the ceiling.
Now as they start to paint where the ceiling and wall meet,
If you're inside,
Press the hands up and away so you can start to lift them high up overhead as best you can.
If this feels too bound up,
Stretch your arms out separate,
But if you can keep your palms together and facing the ceiling,
Pull the little fingers back for three,
And two,
Take your quality breathing on.
And let's release that all the way.
Roll your shoulders a couple of times.
I'm going to invite you to finish your practice with me in Shavasana,
Reclining.
But with this being a morning practice,
If you are already struggling to wake up,
You might choose to spend this time remaining in a comfortable cross-legged seat in a meditation seat instead.
But if you would like to join me for a few minutes in Shavasana,
To fully complete your practice.
Please make your way to lying down,
Just like we started.
Maybe with a pillow blanket underneath your head.
You could support your legs.
On some blocks,
You could pop them up on a sofa or chair,
Or you can lie flat.
Make this pose comfortable please.
Just feel a wave of relaxation flow over your body.
Like it enters the top of your head and softens your face and relaxes your neck and your shoulders.
It helps the right arm to relax fully from shoulder to elbow to wrist and to hand.
Your awareness comes back up to your chest.
And this wave of relaxation flows down your left arm,
Left shoulder,
Upper arm.
For arm and hand.
Awareness back to the heart space.
Softening your belly.
And your hips.
All the way down the thighs to calves to feet.
If you're ready to move into your day,
You can wiggle your fingers and your toes.
Stretch your hands out as you breathe in.
Make fists as you exhale.
And take that into a full body stretch when you next breathe in.
Out through your arms,
Your hands and your feet.
And bring your knees in as you exhale.
Wrap your hands up to them or around them and gradually make your way back up to your seated posture.
And press your hands lightly together in front of you as you sit tall.
You feel gratitude in your heart towards yourself for coming to your mat this morning.
And together,
Let's take a deep breath in.
Thank you for joining me,
Yogi.
Namaste.
