Gentle Movement Morning Flow

Gentle morning movement practice to get you moving, motivated, and start your day by relieving stress. This practice will guide you through a standing sequence with sun salutations, and you will be able t finish the practice lying flat on your back with your choice of bent knees or straight legs. Gentle background music plays in the back to help give your mind something to tune into.

Transcript

Good morning.

Today I invite you to begin standing tall on your mat.

Hopefully you've had your morning coffee,

Maybe your morning tea,

And a little bit of time to let your mind and your body awaken.

Your feet can be pressed together or maybe slightly separated with your feet underneath your hips.

Gently softening your eyelids and relaxing your jaw.

Your knees,

Your ankles,

Your hips,

Your chest,

Your belly.

Is there a deep bend in your knees or are your knees locked?

Noticing here where your hips are at.

If the hips are tucked under,

Your tailbone is pointed to the ground.

Then your low back is going to be fairly flat.

If your tailbone is pointed to the back wall,

Then you may find your belly is going to hang forward here.

So we want to find somewhere in between.

Noticing that it's really challenging to just change the knees without changing the hips or to change the hips and not have an effect on your low back.

So be mindful here of how these movements affect one another.

Breathing in through the nose and out through your nose.

Then again,

Breathing in through the nose and out through your nose.

Each breath in and each breath out coming a little bit longer than the last.

Try to anchor a little bit of weight into the fingertips and as your fingertips become slightly heavier,

Can you feel your shoulder blades pulling a little bit farther from your ears?

Breathing in and breathing out.

We're going to give ourselves thirty minutes today.

Just thirty minutes out of our day today,

Let's show up not just physically but mentally here as well.

For thirty minutes,

We're going to set aside all our outside thoughts.

Maybe imagine each time that those thoughts enter your mind,

Maybe you imagine you scoop them up as if you're scooping up water from a pond.

Then you're going to go ahead and gently place those thoughts that you just scooped up into a basket here just outside of your mind.

Either do those actions with your own hands or maybe just picture yourself doing these actions.

See yourself letting go of those thoughts.

The stronger you can visualize it,

The more real it becomes.

The more you accept it,

The more you believe that this time here truly is for you.

This time truly is time to show up mentally physically and emotionally.

Nice and gently here,

We're going to start to flutter the eyes open as you slowly lift your fingers all the way up to the sky.

We take our first big morning stretch here,

Lifting the fingers high to the sky.

Exhaling,

We're going to pinch the elbows together behind the back body.

Squeezing the shoulder blades together,

We open up the chest and exhale to let the fingers fall right back to the side body.

Breathing in and breathing out.

This time we reach to the sky again,

Maybe find a little bend into the knees as you lift.

If your body is still waking up,

Maybe you hear some cracking in your joints.

Exhale once again,

We slide those elbows together behind the back body.

We pinch the shoulder blades together and exhale all the way down.

One more time,

Breathe in and we'll let the fingers float all the way up to the sky.

As you breathe in,

What do you smell around you?

Flowers,

Plants,

Laundry,

Diffuser,

Maybe a candle.

Then exhale,

We're going to slowly draw the elbows and shoulder blades together behind you.

Opening your chest here one more time and exhaling,

We take it all the way down.

Fingers slide to the hips.

Allow your thumbs to come to the back of your body.

As you gently push the hips forward here,

We slide into our first backbend.

Gently here for the first one of class.

Be intentional,

Be mindful.

Lifting your chest,

Opening your belly to the sky.

Inhale we slide back to center and pause here.

Noticing the blood flowing through your body.

When you're ready,

We'll try that again.

The hands gently help guide the hips forward.

As you push your hips forward,

The weight shifts forward.

We even that shifting of weight out by taking the head and neck all the way back and lifting the chest.

Opening your heart space to the sky.

This one here a little deeper than the last.

Inhale and slide all the way up to center.

Hands fall to the side body.

Notice heat starting to move all the way through from the toes to the top of the head.

This time inhale and sweep the fingers all the way up to the sky.

Taking your gaze up to the sky with your hands.

And then exhale,

Fingers are going to sweep all the way down to the mat.

You find yourself in your first forward fold of practice here.

For this first forward fold,

I encourage you to take a nice deep bend into the knees.

Rending so deep into the knees as if sinking your hips back onto a chair so that you can soften your chest and let your belly rest to the tops of your thighs.

Begin to feel this opening at the low back body.

You might be able to feel your breath pushing into your belly,

Pushing into your thighs.

With your next inhale,

Tuck your chin and gently round up one vertebrae at a time.

We slide the hips forward finding a gentle back bend here.

Next breath in,

Rise to center.

Release your hands,

We pause in mountain pose.

With your next breath in,

Sweep the fingers all the way up to the sky and give an exhale to release forward fold.

With a full deep bend into your knees,

Really opening into your back body.

This time,

Our second forward fold,

You might start to find there's a little bit more space in the body as we slowly peel the back open.

You notice that extra space so what can you do with it?

Breathing in and breathing out.

This time,

We're gonna gently guide the hands forward or maybe you slide your feet back depending on where you are at on your mat.

We're going to walk all the way out into downward facing dog.

In this downward facing dog,

Maybe you picked an upside down U shape or an upside down V shape here.

Allowing your body to mimic that shape that you are picturing.

Be mindful here that if you're picturing a V,

We want to try not to have a point at the top of our V here.

As best as you can,

You want to try to pull your belly button towards your spine.

You want to lift your low back up with your hips.

And as you do this,

Your body is rounding instead of a sharp point here.

There is a nice curve to the hips and the low back.

Your armpits are squeezing down the sides of your body towards your hips.

Breathing in and breathing out.

And your exhale,

Gently float those knees all the way down to your mat.

Keeping your toes curled,

We shift our weight back here onto the heels.

You can stay forward or you can start to walk your hands back towards your knees here.

Finding a place that comfortably fits your body here today.

So that you can feel the opening at the soles of your feet.

Being mindful not to put too much pressure onto the knees here right away.

On your next breath in,

Shift your weight forward as you walk yourself into tabletop,

Uncurling your toes.

Inhale,

Your belly draws towards your mat.

Your tailbone and your gaze lifting to the sky,

Cow pose.

Exhale,

Rounding it out.

Lifting your back body up to the sky,

Trying to squeeze your tailbone and your nose together underneath you.

Cat pose.

Inhale,

Lifting into cow pose.

Tailbone and nose lifting to the sky,

Belly dropping to the mat.

Starting to find an opening in your chest and belly.

Exhale,

Rounding it out into cat pose.

Tucking your nose and tailbone underneath you,

Really rounding your back body to the sky,

Spread the shoulder blades apart.

Inhale,

And we rise back to tabletop.

Curl your toes under,

Lift your hips all the way up to the sky.

Taking one step or many little tiny steps here all the way up to the top edge of your yoga mat.

Letting your knees bend,

Let your hips sink low so that the chest can soften to the tops of your thighs.

This time,

Now that your body is a little bit more open,

Can you release your head and your neck?

Maybe even taking your gaze to look to the back wall.

Could you even grab onto opposite elbows here,

Helping to fully release your body?

Breathing in,

And breathing out.

And one more breath just like this,

Breathing all the way in.

Then breathing out.

On your next breath in,

Grounding through the soles of your feet,

Into the mat,

You press the feet gently tuck your chin and try to roll up one vertebrae at a time.

Stacking one vertebrae at a time until you roll all the way up into standing.

Rolling out the shoulders at the top of the mat.

Then releasing your hands to your side body,

Palms facing forward,

Mountain pose.

If it feels good,

Find your back bend here.

Hands lie to hips,

Open your chest to the sky.

Inhale,

Sliding forward,

Finding center.

Taking an exhale and bending forward,

Reaching to the mat,

Softening the knees,

And sinking low.

The body is warm here in this forward fold.

You've created space into your low back.

Now we start to try to maintain that connection between the belly and the tops of the thighs as you begin to lift your hips up to the sky,

Maintaining that connection of upper body to the legs.

But as you begin to lift the hips to the sky,

Start to notice that nice big stretch,

That nice big pull that comes all the way down the backs of the legs.

Breathing in,

And breathing out.

Breathing in,

Your hands are going to come to the mat and when you're ready,

Gently walking the hands forward or your feet back,

Finding yourself with your hips high,

Body and downward facing dog.

Lying your fingers and your palms into the mat,

Gently rotating the creases of your elbows forward,

Towards the top edge of your yoga mat,

Helping to align your body,

Squeezing your armpits towards your hips,

Your shoulder blades towards your glutes.

We anchor a little bit more weight into the heels.

We lift the back body up with the hips nice and high.

Your belly button reaches towards your spine and then take a moment to pay attention to your breath.

First,

Noticing the breath in the nose,

The temperature,

The sound,

The smell and then begin to follow that breath.

Follow the breath,

The pathway of your breath.

Where does it go to?

Then begin to notice your exhale.

Where does your exhale come from?

Is it taking the same pathway that your inhale took?

Next step,

Maybe just taking the opposite direction.

Breathing in,

Then your next exhale gently lower your knees down to the mat and curl the toes and release,

Finding your all fours right here.

Your right leg is going to extend to the back wall,

Letting your right heel become leveled or even with your hips by lifting your toes off the mat,

Pausing.

Recognize the engagement of your core here in this three legged pose.

On your next inhale your knee is going to slide up in towards your nose,

Your body rounding out like cat pose,

Your nose and your knees squeezing together.

Exhale extending your leg all the way back out long.

Inhale rounding it in knee to nose.

Exhale and kick it back.

One more time inhaling,

Sliding your knee in towards your nose,

Activating your core here.

Take an exhale and send it back.

This time your right foot is going to step all the way up.

You could step it up level or even with your hands and then keep your right foot nice and wide on your yoga mat.

Maybe for you your toes don't reach as high as the hands here right away and that's okay.

Just go ahead and inch the toes forward until you find a comfortable spot for your foot.

When you're ready your left hand presses into the mat.

You begin to squeeze the right glute to the back wall and slowly intentionally lifting your right palm,

Your right fingers all the way up to the sky.

Breathing in,

Finding your twist.

Breathing out,

Breathing in and on your exhale gently releasing your right palm sliding back to the mat.

This time your right palm presses into the mat spreading your fingers wide.

Inhale the left hand slides all the way up to the sky.

Breathing in and breathing out.

One more breath,

Breathing in and breathing out releasing the left hand down to the mat.

When you're ready your right foot is going to kick back all the way back around to meet your left leg and foot.

Press through the right knee and top of the foot and when you're ready go ahead and lift the left heel up even with the hips.

From here initiating activating that core once again left knee sliding and squeezing in towards your nose and an exhale kicking it back.

Inhale squeezing left knee into the nose rounding it out and exhale kick it back.

One last time when you're ready inhale squeeze knee to nose and exhale send it back.

This time stepping your left foot all the way up even with the hands.

Keeping your foot nice and wide on your yoga mat and then your right palm is going to spread nice and wide pressing the fingers into the mat.

When you're ready inhaling the left hand slides all the way open to the sky.

Squeezing your left glute to the back wall breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing in and on your next exhale softening the left palm all the way down to the mat.

This time the left hand grounds into the mat inhale letting the right hand slowly float up to the sky.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing in noticing this twist in your spine here and on your next exhale slowly releasing all the way down.

Your right hand comes back to the mat.

Both hands press in when you're ready the left leg kicks back around meeting your right leg.

Your big toes are going to slide together your knees are going to open up nice and wide as wide as your yoga mat.

Gently softening your belly softening your chest softening your forehead down towards the mat.

Here we release into child's pose.

Fingers are going to slide all the way forward trying to feel the breath moving into the belly the belly pushing into the tops of the thighs.

Maybe you can soften your eyelids here.

As you breathe in and breathe out.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Slowly pulling your breath all the way into the back body.

Feeling your breath massaging your spine.

Taking one more breath right here.

On your next breath in sliding your gaze forward gently sliding forward onto your elbows and your forearms.

The heat rushes into your hips as you slowly slide your legs all the way out nice and long.

Sphinx pose here.

When you're ready go ahead and gently continue to reach the palms all the way out flattening your chest flattening your belly to the mat.

You're welcome to stay right here sliding one ear down to the mat.

Maybe walking your hands underneath an ear.

So if you find more comfort on your back body go ahead and roll onto your back body here.

At this point you choose you decide which pose to end your practice in today.

Making sure that you choose a pose that is comfortable for you.

Wherever you land I encourage you to soften your eyelids and take 3-5 full breaths here.

Paying full attention to your inhale and your exhale.

Breathing in for 1.

Breathing in for 2.

Breathing in for 3.

Breathing in for 4.

And breathing in for 5.

Wherever you are maybe you can slide your palms together as you take a moment to find gratitude for today's practice.

Gratitude that today you took time for yourself to move your body to soften your mind to be intentional in what you do.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide in your practice here today.

I welcome you back to this practice whenever you're needing a space to just move.

To just be within your body.

The light in me honors the light in you.

Namaste.

Reviews

Hello beautiful 🌸🎀🌸🎀🌸Thank you so much for the wonderfully movements 🎀🎀🎀it gives me sweet pleasure like unwrapping a present 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️Namaste