Morning Flow - Full Body Energizing Practice (17min)

A complete morning practice to wake up the body and prepare you for the day. We move from child's pose through cat cow, table variations, downward dog, standing work, spinal twists, and somatic movement to free up energy through the whole body. Breath and navel awareness run through everything. You'll finish feeling grounded, open, and ready for the day. A good one to come back to regularly.

Transcript

Hello, Welcome to this morning energizing practice. Come to meet me here on your map. We're going to begin in Child's Post. Let's make our way down. Bring your knees nice and wide, Send your hips back. Extend your arms forward. And you want to rest your forehead onto something, So if it's not the floor. . . Maybe it's a block, Or maybe you're stacking your fists. We're going to spend a moment here, So just let your awareness go inward. Start to breathe in and out through your nose. Each time you breathe out, Just allow yourself to relax a little bit more, Softening the tension through your hips or your face or shoulders. Letting your breath be nice and smooth, Nice and even. And then trying to keep this inward focus as we start to move, Let's rise up to table. You might even keep your eyes closed. As we move through Cat-Cow. Spread through your fingers, Ground through your palms. Inhale, Look forward and lift your heart. Exhale, You're going to start to round the spine. Chin comes in toward the chest. And then repeat. Inhale, Lengthening the front of the body, Looking forward. Exhale as you round. Nice cat cow movement. So keep moving at your pace. It can be nice to add another layer. As you exhale, You draw your low belly in, So navel activation. Draw in at the navel as you round. Inhale as you lengthen. Repeat that a few times. Exhale, Drawing that navel back. Inhale as you relax. Good, One more of those and then we'll come back to a neutral spine. Nice. Relax spine here. Make sure you've got enough room, Maybe moving forward on your mat you're going to. . . Press through the right heel. Toes are going to stay down to start. Your navel draws in, So low belly is active. Inhale, Lift up through that right heel, And then look forward. And then we'll do a similar motion. As we exhale, We're going to bring our knee toward our nose, Chin toward our chest, Navel draws in. Inhale up and back. Really lift up, So reach through that back heel. And then repeat. Exhale, Come forward, Knee toward your nose, Chin toward your chest. Inhale up and back. Each exhale, We're getting that navel activation. Really the home of our personal power. Next time you extend, We're going to stay there. The heel so you feel engagement on that right side glute. You can stay like this or you might like to extend your opposite arm. And everything lifts. We're extending the arm, Reaching back through that back leg. Still breathing, Nice relaxed breath. Good. Release the hand. Knee comes down. Inhale to rise. Arms come overhead. Look up. Take a few breaths here. Good, Reach your arms down. Exhale down. Hands come behind the back, Clasp the hands. And then start to extend the arms as you open through the chest. Draw your shoulder blades together. Take a few breaths here. Create some space in the front of the body. Good. Let's release. Hands are going to come down. And then we'll go to the second side. Left leg extends, Toes are down. Your navel draws in, So you got some support through your low abdomen. As you inhale, You lift through that back heel. You should feel active through that left side glute. You should feel that in the low back as well. Nice and strong. Look forward. And then as you exhale, Your knee comes in toward your nose, Chin toward your chest. Draw in at that low belly. Nice squeeze. Inhale, Up and back. And so move with your breath. Allow your breath to guide your movement. Excel brings you in. Inhale, It extends out. Good. Next time you extend, You might stay there. Maybe you want to reach the opposite arm. Nice length through the body. Good. Release down. Everything comes down. Inhale to rise up. Take a little break for the wrists. Exhale, Arms come down. Let's class the hands once again. Draw the shoulder blades together, Open through the front of the body, Extend the arms. Take a few breaths. This time you might move the head and neck so it might feel nice to get in the throat a little bit. Lean the head back. Maybe a little bit of side to side. Just a small. . . Movement. To get a little bit of release. Good. Relax that effort. Release the hands. Spread your fingers nice and wide, Hands come down. Tuck your toes and lift your hips. Let's come into downward dog. And I want you to keep the knees really bent to start. And get a little bit of movement. So you shift from one side to the other. Keep those knees bent. Good. Keep pressing through the hands and then start to check in with your spine. Anytime we're in downward dog, You want to have a nice long spine. So hips are lifting. And then little by little you might start to. . . Straighten the legs. But it's better to have a long spine. Than straight legs. So totally fine to keep a bend in the knees. Good, While we're here, Let's bring the right leg up and back. Three-legged dog. With an option to bend the knee and start to open the hip. If you're here, You might even look out under the right arm. I want you to breathe into the right side of the body. Release when you're ready. And then take it to the other side, So left leg up and back. Option to bend and open on this side. This time feeling this on the left side of the body. Good, We're going to release. And then little by little, Let's walk the feet forward. Coming to a forward bend, Uttanasana. Relax your head, Relax your shoulders. Slight bend in the knees so you're able to rest your abdomen on your thighs. Relax the breasts into the abdomen. Could stay there or hook onto your big toes as you inhale, Lengthen. Out through the crown of your head. As you exhale, Fold forward. And perhaps at the bottom of the exhale, Just a gentle little tug. But never forcing the body in any position. Stay here and breathe, Opening through the backs of the legs. Good. Release that. Here we're going to bend the knees and sit the hips back. And then explore the weight of the body is going to be a little bit more in the heels. Nice and strong through the legs, Active through the legs, And then the arms come up. Now, From here, Start to slightly draw that navel back, So navel draws in low belly. And the low back starts to slightly lengthen. If this feels slightly uncomfortable, Then you're doing this correctly. Take a few breaths. It's a challenging posture. Start to notice. Subtle shifts. In the body, Also in the mind. Notice where the mind goes when it gets challenging. And then inhale to rise up and take a slight back bend. Reach up. Open up Exhale, Relax the arms all the way down. And then in a really gentle version of that, Let's just keep doing that. So inhale, We bend the knees. And open up. Exhale, Come down. So actually we're exhaling on the bend. Exhale down. Inhale, Open. And do that a few times. Feel yourself creating space. Allow yourself to take up space. Start to connect to your own power here feel really strong What do you take on the day? Releasing tension through the body and the mind. Good. We're going to inhale, Reach up and keep the arms overhead. Nice big extension here. Bring your feet a little bit wider. I'm going to attempt to mirror you. You're going to hook onto your left wrist. Stretch up and over to your right. You want to be feeling extension through that entire left side body. Breathe into the left side. Come back to center. Clasp your right wrist Stretch up and over to your left. Now the whole right side of the body. Nice length. Go come back to center and then little by little. Gradually. Release the arms nice and slow. Take your time. Allow the arms to relax alongside the body. Pause for a moment, Be still. Nice. Extend up through the spine. The feet are nice and wide. We're going to use the elbows here. And we're slowly going to start to twist. As we twist, We lift up the opposite heel. Keep the spine nice and tall. Come into a spinal twist. And if it's available, We're going to extend one arm behind. So as you open up. . . Arm comes behind you. Other hand comes in toward your heart space. Get a nice release for the spine. Good. When you're done there, Keep twisting but then just release the arms. Allow the hands to naturally land on the body. Slowly start to come back towards center. Nice. And then let's get into all the places of the joints. So start at the wrists. Allow that to get into the elbows. And the shoulders. All right, Just roll with it. Might seem a little bit strange. Good, And then. . . Start to get into the knees, The ankles. So a bit of a. . . Full body shake here. Shake through the wrists. Shake through the legs. Here we're helping to work on the subtle body. The pranic body, As we call in yoga, Prana. Can get stuck at the places of the joints. So we shake. We move. We help to free up the flow of prana. Good. Get into your shoulders a little bit more. And then come into these little pulsations where you lift the heels and then drop the heels down. And your shoulders nice and heavy. And just roll with it. If this is new it might be Maybe a little bit strange, But. . . Let yourself engage with this practice. Energizing the body, Energizing the mind. Really preparing for. Anything that comes ahead. Fully equipped to handle. All the situations of our day. Good, And just come back to center. Come to stillness, Ground through your feet. Stand up nice and tall, Relax your shoulders. Eyes open or closed, It's up to you. You're welcome to take any arm position as well. Take a moment to settle into stillness. Let your awareness go inward. Allow each breath to become a little more relaxed, Softening the breath. Take a few more moments. And notice how you feel. Notice the experience. Of your mind and body. Your subtle energy of your body. If you'd like, You can bring your hands to prayer. Gently bowing the head. And taking a moment here to really honor yourself. You've taken this incredible time out of your day. To nourish your body. Nourish your mind. And I hope that the light of this practice will Illuminate your mind and body. Illuminate your entire day. And that you may be a source of light for all those around you. Aum. Peace. Peace. Peace. Namaste. Before you open your eyes, You can rub your palms and warm up the hands. Generates some heat. Really get into it. And when the hands feel warm, You cover the eyes. You can open the eyes into the palms. And gradually relax your hands down. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope to see you very soon.