Good Morning Yoga - 40-Minute Gentle Hatha

Welcome to a rejuvenating 40-minute Hatha yoga experience designed to start your day with peace and vitality. Join me for this guided audio yoga class, where you'll embark on a journey of gentle yet invigorating seated and reclined poses. In this session, we'll awaken the body with mindful stretches, focusing on deepening our breath and embracing the present moment. As we move through each pose, you'll feel the tension melt away and a sense of calm envelops you.

This class is accessible to all levels. No visual distractions, just the soothing guidance of my voice leading you through each movement.

Together, we'll set a positive intention for the day ahead, allowing you to carry this clarity and openness with you long after the class ends.

Press play, find a comfortable space, and let's begin this day with intention and grace. Namaste.

Transcript

Good morning and a warm welcome to class.

I want to invite you to a seated position,

A cross-legged position,

The Kastner and Easy pose.

And use your hands on your knees to encourage downwards to open the hips,

Root through the sit bones and extend your crown up tall,

Which brings some height into the spine.

So not an overly exaggerated feet,

But a powerful,

Tall,

Comfortable seat.

I'm going to turn the palms up here as they rest on the knees and let the fingers just gently curl into their natural little curve.

I invite you to close down your eyes here and take a moment just to be.

Take a moment just to arrive,

Just to settle,

Just to ground.

There are already some distractions in the body,

Like maybe a stiff neck,

That you feel like moving by all means do it.

Any quick little stretches or sometimes we get a random itch when we think that we need to sit still.

So get those kind of out of your system and then when you're ready you might find it a little bit easier to settle into stillness.

And depending on where you are,

How quiet or not that it is,

You might be able to notice that your breath is making a little sound.

It's very rarely like completely,

Completely,

Utterly silent.

So tune into that little subtle sound and bring all of your awareness to your breath.

And just by bringing your awareness to it,

It's likely that you're breathing a little deeper.

So start to really feel the breath moving through the body.

Really focusing on the torso and any movement that you can feel there.

Notice the ribs expanding,

The belly rising.

The belly rising means that we're accessing the diaphragm,

Which is exactly what we want.

If you were asked,

What is your biggest breathing muscle?

You might say lungs by mistake.

It's not actually a muscle,

But it's the diaphragm.

And often we don't notice or appreciate our diaphragm until we're ill and then when it gets sore.

So take a moment to consciously move that diaphragm now as we breathe deeply.

The next three breaths,

Exhale through your mouth.

So big,

Deep inhale.

Exhale,

Slide out.

And again,

Inhale.

Exhale,

Slide out.

One more time.

Lovely.

Let's change the crossing of the legs.

And just notice before you do,

What leg you had in front.

And just notice before you do,

What leg you had in front.

So if you had the left leg in front,

Left side of the body is the more yin,

Lunar side,

Right side,

Right leg is the opposite.

It's the yang and it's the solar.

So just interesting to make a mental note and then bring the other leg in front and find your cross-legged supraspinatus again,

Making sure that you're still on your sit bones.

We're going to get into our neck and shoulders now.

So dropping the chin to the chest without leaning forward.

And then extending that chin up towards the sky.

Coming up only as far as suits you.

And again,

Chin to chest.

Resisting any temptation to lean forward with the rest of the body.

And using your hands against your knees to really grip on as you extend up.

So take a couple of rounds of these and or any other neck and shoulder movements here that you know is going to give you a release.

It could be circles.

It could be chin to shoulder.

It could be looking over your shoulders,

Looking behind you,

Dropping ear to shoulder.

You don't have to have names,

Just intuitive movement here.

So you want to release any stagnant energy,

Any stress,

Anything that the body is holding on to.

And it could be just from a night's sleep or it could be from 30 years of stress.

It could go really deep.

The chances are we need to do this regularly.

The chances are we need to do this regularly.

Lovely.

We're coming straight into seated calf cows now.

So the hands are still on the knee.

It's kind of almost intuitive from the movements that we've just been doing.

And so round the spine,

Look down at your ankles,

Let yourself kind of drop back a little bit.

And then using your hands against your knees,

Roll your shoulders back,

Shine your heart forward,

Chest forward,

Kind of sticking your butt out as we come into our seated cow.

So we exhale as we round into seated calves.

Inhale as you look forward for seated cow,

Shoulders down and back.

So take a couple of rounds of these,

Maybe even more than a couple.

And there are days when we want to move so slowly,

Especially in the morning.

And there are days where we're just like,

Okay,

Give me all of the movement.

This is too slow.

Give me more.

So you go at whatever speed you want to hear.

This has an actual added bonus sometimes of releasing the hips.

Even though we haven't moved,

We're just leaning back.

We get a nice hip release from times.

Of course,

Everybody is different.

And just to bring that balance back in for the next couple of seated calves,

Bring the other leg forward.

So the leg that was in front when you first sat down and take a couple more calves.

And make these as kind of exaggerated as you want.

So really bend your elbows,

Really sit in the hips.

So you're going to sit in the hips,

You're going to sit in the hips,

You're going to sit in the hips,

You're going to sit in the hips.

So really bend your elbows,

Really sit in that chest forward and the shoulders back.

So take up space.

I only say this when I'm teaching.

Take up as much space in the world as you can.

Do not try to make yourself smaller.

We're often told by society and by authority and by diaculture even,

That we need to be smaller all the time.

Make yourself expansive here,

Expansive.

Your energy is beyond your physical body.

It's beyond your physical body.

So move into that space.

You're not confined by where your body ends.

And from these Cat-Cows,

We're coming straight into Kundalini Circles.

So we're back in Sukhasana.

Our shoulders are over our hips.

Our hands are resting on the knees.

And we're just taking Torso Circles.

So exactly how it sounds.

So leaning forward,

Circling and coming back.

Almost like you're being hypnotized or you are a snake that's being charmed by a snake charmer.

And you're coming up out of the Wicker Basket.

Or you're a belly dancer.

Bend the elbows.

Instead of kind of gripping the knees now,

You can extend out the fingers.

So it's just the palm of your hands that are on the knees and they're pushing down.

Always looking to open the hips.

Moving the head,

Releasing any more stagnant energy that's trapped in the head,

Neck and shoulders.

If you are able to hear any little sounds there,

That is my release.

I've yet to meet a person that wasn't carrying a lot of tension in this area.

Yes,

We have other parts of the body that we carry,

But this one seems quite universal.

You can start to send the shoulders forward as you circle forward and lift them up as you come back.

And again,

Using your intuition.

Doesn't have to have a name.

Doesn't have to be a specific asana.

And then let's change the crossing of the leg and change direction of your knees there.

And funnily enough,

When we change direction,

We release a whole lot more often.

Just keep it going at your own pace,

Pushing the palms onto the knees.

And coming back to sitting in Sukhasana.

Let's turn the palms up and take a moment here with the eyes closed.

Tune into the energy.

Notice how you feel.

Still extending that crown up tall in a calm but powerful seat.

Let's bring open the eyes.

Let's bring open the eyes,

Turn the palms down and take any intuitive movements here.

Any stretches at all that you feel like.

And then when we're ready,

We're coming into our,

What I call our beach ball move.

So extending the arms out to the side and then bringing them forward,

But rounding.

Rounding the arms as you're sending your fingertips towards each other.

So your hands are in line with your chest and you're looking downwards.

So it's like you're,

Literally like you're hugging a big beach ball.

Or you can think about those pilates,

Those big inflated balls that pregnant women use or a giant globe,

Whatever.

Visualization works here,

But the idea is that you're rounded.

You're sending your shoulders forward and you're looking slightly down.

We're holding here.

So we're maybe letting three or four of the fingers touch.

So each finger represents an element.

So what we're doing,

We're letting the fingers touch,

Is bringing our own internal elements into balance.

So our doshas are made up of our constitutions.

So just gently pressing each finger to its corresponding finger and the other hand to balance the elements.

Don't forget the thumb,

Which is fire.

So we're holding here,

We're balancing our elements.

We're also getting a work out of the arms.

We've got 15 more seconds.

We're not going to drop the arms down after this.

We will be expanding out to the side,

But for now,

Still hold.

Okay,

Inhale,

Extend the arms out wide,

Almost bring them backwards like you want to touch the wall behind you.

Exhale,

Round,

Forward again,

Let the fingers touch.

Inhale,

Bounce the bra across the collarbone,

Send that chest,

That heart forward.

Exhale,

Round,

Touch.

So continue on.

Move with the beat of your own breath,

The rhythm of your own breath.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Round,

Forward.

Inhaling as you expand out to the side.

Exhaling as you come forward.

The temptation here when the arms get tired is to have a quick little drop down.

It's up to you.

Keep going if you can.

Obviously,

You need to take a break and take a break.

But really use this as an opportunity for deep breath.

Make some noise.

Let's go for our last three.

Last two.

Last one.

Let's bring the arms down.

They might need a little moment here.

Let's turn the palms up.

Close down the eyes and tune into the energy.

Notice how you're feeling,

What you're feeling,

Where you're feeling it.

Smile and breathe.

Palms are still up for receptiveness.

And then interlace the hands together in front of the chest so that the pads of the palms are touching and we're circling out the hands,

Releasing any tension in them.

Warming up the wrists.

And then changing direction.

Release the hands.

Give them a shake like you've washed your hands and there's no towel.

So a really,

Really,

Really vigorous shake.

Keep it going.

Doesn't matter if your arms are wobbling.

As long as your rings don't fly off.

That's okay.

And then start to shake further up the arms,

So getting your whole arm involved.

And release down.

Again,

Palms up,

Taking a second to notice the energy.

And then finally,

We're changing the crossing of the legs one last time,

Which means that we're coming back to the way that we initially sat down.

So get that leg in front.

On an inhale,

Extend your arms up overhead.

And with your right hand,

Lightly grab your left wrist and lean over to your right.

So we're getting to the left side body.

Both elbows are bent and your hands are roughly above the crown of your head,

Although you're leaning to the side.

Bring those shoulders back down to where they should be,

If they're up around your ears.

Keep the grip on the hand nice and loose so you're not getting a lot of tension into the hand that you've just relaxed.

And hold or pulse here.

You can pulse towards your mat.

Whichever feels best for you,

Holding or pulsing.

Let's come back to center.

We're changing sides.

So changing the wrists,

Leaning to the opposite side.

Hold or pulse.

Keep those arms,

Those hands,

Above the crown of your head.

Above the crown of your head.

Don't let them drop forward or back.

More than likely to drop forward rather than back.

And keep tall,

Shoulders down.

Pulse or hold into that side body.

Come back to center.

Float the hands down.

Take a second to tune into the energy,

But also to give the arms a little rest for a second.

And then we're interlacing the fingers together in front of the chest.

Then the palms forward.

Stretch out the arms.

Inhale,

Extend up overhead.

Look up at your hands and exhale.

Drop the arms down by your side,

But do it slowly and do it dramatically.

Take up space.

Inhale,

Hands interlaced in front of the chest.

Forward and up.

And exhale.

Release your arms down by your side,

Back to your mat.

Keep it going.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Three more.

Inhale,

Extending up.

Exhale,

Side out the mouth.

Last one.

And release.

Beautiful job.

Let's lean down to one side.

Uncross the leg.

And then shake them out.

Rub them.

Take ankle circles.

And move those legs kind of vigorously.

I'm going to take some seated windshield wipes.

So we're sitting.

Our hands are behind us and we're nice and tall.

The knees are bent.

And then we'll bring the feet really wide apart.

So legs are really wide apart.

Leaning back.

And windshield wiping,

As in dropping the legs to either side.

So the side that you're on,

Your leg doesn't have to go all the way down.

Just kind of depends on your own anatomy.

Maybe yours does go down and that's fine.

But don't feel like you have to force it down.

It's just a gentle release.

After sitting in Sukhasana for 20 minutes.

And then extend the legs out in front.

So we're into a Dandasana,

A staff pose.

The legs are extended out in front of you.

Your feet are flexed.

Some softness in the knees or a bend in the knees if your hamstrings need that today.

Use your hands to press into the floor to give yourself some height in the upper body.

And then bring your hands onto your thighs to rest onto your thighs.

Your gaze is directly forward.

So a very active seat.

You're just sitting,

But you can feel it.

We're tall,

We're not slumped.

It's the posture that you were probably told to take as a child.

Keep those feet flexed to activate the muscles and the legs.

And then from here,

We're coming into a forward fold.

If you like,

You can bend your knees first or you can wait until you're in the pose and see how it feels.

So on your inhale,

Extend up towards the sky.

Exhale,

Forward fold,

Aiming towards your shins or your feet.

Keeping that back straight,

Just in its natural S.

Not a big round or a big hump.

Bend your knees as much as you need to today.

How much you need to bend your knees can just depend on the day you had the day before,

How you slept,

So many different factors.

So don't ever force yourself into a position because that's how it looked last week.

See how your body is today.

And we're exhaling the chest towards the thighs.

Maybe closing down the eyes here,

If you had opened them.

Taking a moment,

30 more seconds,

Actually,

In this posture.

And then slowly uncurl.

And then slowly uncurl.

Drop your hands down to one side.

Bend your knees so you're flipping your legs behind you.

Bring yourself onto your hands and knees.

And we're taking a lovely Balasana,

Lovely child's pose.

So big toes together,

Knees wide apart.

Drop those hips down,

Stretch the arms.

Bring the forehead down to rest on the mat or to hover.

And every exhale,

Sink in the chest towards the earth.

And just taking some time here to ground.

From here,

With the hands rooted down,

Let's rock forward into a tabletop position.

The knees are under the hips,

The hands are under the shoulders.

Walk yourself to the top of your mat.

And then extend your right leg behind.

So I was gripping the mat and push back at a big stretch into the hamstring.

So if you can see yourself in a mirror or anything,

Just have a check that your upper body is in a nice straight line,

That you could have a tray of drinks on your back here.

And you could hold them steady.

And then take some rocks forward and back.

So you would definitely be spitting your drinks now,

I think,

But we're getting into the ankle,

Into the hamstring.

Keeping it rocking.

A couple more times.

And then lifting it up now so that your leg is in line with your hip,

Toe pointing down,

Just holding here.

From here,

You want to bend the knee.

So your sole is now shining up towards the ceiling.

Your thigh is parallel to the floor.

So we're just going to do a little pulses upwards here,

Like you're wanting to kick the ceiling.

So looking down between your thumbs.

I'm going to pulse here for another 15 seconds.

So you're lifting the leg upwards.

And then when you come down from your pulse,

Your thigh is parallel to the floor.

Try not to let it drop down any lower.

Beautiful.

Last one.

Replace that knee back down.

Extend the left leg behind,

Pushing back into your heel.

Tray of drinks on your back.

Hold.

And then taking your rocks forward and back,

Forward and back.

Let that foot,

That heel really push back.

Last one.

And then lift the leg so that it's now in line with your upper body.

Whole body in a straight line.

Toes still pointing down.

Holding here for a couple of seconds.

And then bending that leg,

Keeping the foot flexed.

Your left thigh is parallel to the floor.

And your sole is shining up towards the ceiling.

When we're doing our little pulses up,

When we're doing our little pulses up,

Pulse up for about 20 seconds.

It doesn't matter how many you do in the time.

Slower is probably better anyways.

And see if you can go higher each time.

Last one.

And let's bring that knee back down.

And sit back on your heels.

So we're coming into a child's pose variation.

The legs are together.

Extend those arms long.

Exhale down.

Maybe because you're,

The changing of the legs,

Because you're kind of kneeling,

Your forehead won't touch,

Completely touch down,

Or maybe it does,

But don't worry too much.

If it doesn't touch down,

Get a big stretch.

Into the arms,

Into the hands.

The upper body's resting on your thighs.

We're going to be here for 30 seconds.

Get as big a stretch into those arms as you can.

Into the whole back body,

The spine.

Rock yourself forward.

Tuck your toes.

Let's swivel to one side.

So you come down to a seat.

It doesn't matter what way you come out of that.

And then make your way to lying down.

Maybe grabbing a little drink before you come to lie down.

I'm drinking an electrolyte here.

And then come to lying on your back.

I'm going to bring balance to the body by finishing with a twist.

So let's hug the knees in.

Enjoy that feeling of giving yourself a hug.

You can take some ankle circles,

Point and flex the feet.

You can rock from side to side,

Or take circles.

So you're really pushing your lower back into the mat.

Take about four circles if you like circles,

And then change direction.

As we know,

When we change direction,

It can feel completely different.

Lovely.

Back to centre.

Smile and be thankful that your body is capable of bringing you through this athletic practice.

And from this bent knee position,

I'm going to release the knees,

Extend your arms out in line with your shoulders.

If you have the space,

If not,

Behind you on the floor.

And we're dropping the legs over to the right.

So the challenge here is to keep the left shoulder,

Both shoulders in fact,

But particularly the left,

Still on your mat.

So you can shift your hips to the left if that helps.

And then coming into your twist,

Getting your right leg,

The right hand side of your right leg to touch the floor.

So bring it all the way down.

So no hovering,

No uncomfortable hovering.

Getting that leg all the way down with the left shoulder still on the mat,

Or if there's like a little space there,

You can always grab something,

Whatever you have,

A layer you took off,

A cushion to something,

Just to bridge that gap.

Definitely close the eyes down,

Let the fingers curl.

We are on the home stretch,

Yogis.

We're just going to be here for less than a minute before we take it to the other side.

We're still here,

That same side for now.

And then keeping the movement as smoothly as possible,

Bring the knees back into center.

Take the time to give yourself another hug,

Rock circle here if you like.

Kind of realign yourself,

Maybe shifting the hips to the right now as you take that same twist to the left.

And the goal or the aim here is to keep that right shoulder on the mat.

Again,

Propping if needed.

Finding your twist to the other side.

Maybe less than a minute here.

And we're slowly,

Carefully,

Gently coming out of this twist and either hugging your knees in one more time or maybe doing the opposite and taking a full body stretch or any other asana that you like to end your practice with.

Anything you feel like doing.

And when you're ready,

We are coming into a short shavasana.

So the shavasana is always about 10% of the length of the class.

So in this case,

It would be just under five minutes.

So take your time to get comfortable,

Make sure the shoulders are away from the ears,

The legs are extended,

Arms are extended,

The hands can be on your body.

Let your toes point away from each other.

Have your legs spread apart as feels good on your lower back.

Softening into the jaw.

Smoothing out any lines of concentration on your forehead.

Softening your cheeks.

That we're coming full circle and finishing asana.

Releasing stress and tension from the face.

We want relaxed,

Happy,

Joyful,

Vibrant,

Radiant faces and body and spirit and energies.

Let yourself be heavy.

Let yourself just drop down.

The whole body relax.

So give yourself this space and time.

Even if you have a million and one things to do,

Just commit to these final of three minutes.

And just know that whatever you do need to do today,

The chances are that you'll do it better.

You'll do it with a happier,

More calm attitude by taking this time.

Whole body relax.

And as you commit to the final two minutes of shavasana,

Maybe choose a little affirmation for yourself for the day ahead.

An I am statement.

When you've chosen this,

Repeat it three times in your mind or out loud if you can.

And even in your lying shavasana position,

We can bring our hands into the sankalpa mudra and gesture.

So you're clasping your hands together with the left hand on top.

So the left hand is back of the hand facing up to you and the right hand is palm up.

So take a little clasp just to seal that intention.

And then release the hands back down.

Wiggle your fingers,

Move your wrists,

Start to move your feet,

Your legs,

Your head.

And if you can remember when you first sat down,

What leg was in front,

That's the side that you're going to lie on.

You're going to roll over onto your left hand side if it was your left leg in front or the right hand side if it was your right leg in front.

And slowly bring yourself up to a seat.

In your seat here,

You will take any stretches or movements that you feel like.

You can repeat some of the ones from earlier,

Grabbing the wrists or makeup and do your own thing.

And when you're ready,

We're taking another mudra and jali.

Bringing the hands together,

Pressing the palms together,

Rub the hands together to get some energy.

Place those hands over your closed eyes and gently pat down really light touches onto your face,

Onto your chest,

Down onto your belly,

And then bringing the hands back together to close our practice.

I offer you my sincere gratitude for practicing with me today.

Have a great day and I'll see you on the mat soon.

Namaste.

Reviews

I’m 72 and have been practicing since I was 21. This practice was one of the most thoughtful, complete, compassionate ones I’ve had the pleasure to join. Please do more Hatha and yin sessions. Thanks you, you’ve made my day.

Easy to follow spoken instructions. Thank yo for this session🩷

What a lovely 40 mins. Just perfect for. Sunday evening . Thank you