Simple Morning Yoga Flow

Hi friends, welcome back to Your Journey Yoga. Today, we have a simple morning yoga flow. This practice is beginner-friendly and will help you wake up the body with gentle stretching targeting the hips, hamstrings, and side bodies, and a few sun salutations to get your energy moving.

Grab blocks or any other props you’d like to have with you. I’ll meet you on your mat! Let’s begin.

Background Music: Yoga Spirit by Spirits of Our Dreams | Accessible at Epidemic Sound

Transcript

Hi friends,

Welcome back to Your Journey Yoga.

Today we have a simple morning yoga flow.

This practice is beginner-friendly and will help you wake up the body with gentle stretching and a few sun salutations to get our energy moving.

Grab blocks or any other props you'd like to have with you,

I'll meet you on your mat.

Let's begin.

We're going to start today in Sukhasana,

A seated position with the legs crossed.

As you come into your seat,

Take a moment to anchor down into both of your sits bones and think about pressing the earth away from your seat as you lengthen up through each vertebra of the spine,

All the way up through the back of the neck and out through the crown of your head.

Take a nice deep inhale in here and as you exhale,

Allow the face muscles to relax and the shoulders to soften and begin to tune into your breathing.

You might start to deepen your inhales and lengthen your exhales or if it feels serving for you to find an ujjayi breath,

You can do that as well.

Noticing the unique flow,

Depth and pace of your breathing this morning.

If the eyes aren't softened or closed yet,

Go ahead and do so and just take a moment to go inward and notice how you are feeling energetically and mentally this morning.

Utilizing whatever arises for you as information for how you can show up for yourself in this flow and how you can show up for yourself in the rest of your day.

Take a deep inhale through the nose and a soft exhale through your mouth.

On your next inhale,

Begin to lengthen your arms up towards the sky and on your exhale,

Take a gentle twist to the left side,

Bringing the right hand to the left thigh,

Maybe bringing your gaze over your back shoulder.

Taking a deep inhale in here and an exhale out.

On your next inhale,

Reach your arms back towards the sky,

Coming through center and on your exhale,

Twist over to the right,

Left hand to the right thigh,

Lengthening through the crown of your head.

Take a deep inhale in and an exhale out.

Inhale return to center,

Reach your arms up high and then bring your left hand down to the earth beside you.

Reach your right fingertips over to the left side,

Keeping your right sit bone connected with your mat.

Right thigh is heavy towards the earth.

Inhale to find length through your side body and exhale,

Maybe you bend a little bit more deeply into the left arm.

Inhale to rise back through center,

Arms reach high and plant your right palm beside you,

Left fingertips reach over to the right side,

Left sit bone and thigh stay drawing down towards the mat.

Inhale to create space in your side body and exhale,

Possibly bending a little deeper into your right arm.

Inhale to rise back up,

Arms through center and then exhale,

Make your way onto all fours,

Finding your tabletop position.

As you come onto all fours,

Bring some awareness into your hands,

Spreading your fingertips nice and wide and deciding if you'd like to press into the tops of your feet or curl your toes under.

On an inhale,

Press the earth away from you,

Drop your belly and lift your gaze for cow pose and exhale round the back,

Find your cat.

On an inhale,

Drop the belly,

Find your cow,

Exhale round the spine,

Cat.

One more,

Drop the belly and exhale round.

Come back to a neutral spine,

We'll bump the hips over to the left and gaze over your right shoulder,

Looking back at your right foot and finding a stretch in the left side body.

Inhale,

Move through center and bring your gaze over to the left side,

Looking back at your left foot.

Inhale,

Move through center,

Take it back to the right,

Move through center and take it to the left.

Come back into a neutral spine,

We'll tuck the toes,

Press firmly into your hands and lift your hips high and back into downward facing dog.

You might find a little easy,

Soft movement here,

Stretching through the legs,

Stretching through the soles of your feet,

Maybe even moving the head and neck around very gently here.

And then find stillness in your downward facing dog and take a deep inhale in,

Exhale to ground.

Inhale to bend your knees,

Look towards the top of your mat.

And as you exhale,

Step or hop your way up to the top.

Inhale to lift halfway and exhale to fold.

Look down through your feet,

One vertebrae at a time,

Begin to roll all the way up through your spine,

Coming to high mountain,

Urdhva hastasana,

Hands reach up towards the sky.

And then as you exhale,

We'll bring our hands down to heart center,

Samasthi hati.

Inhale into your heart,

Exhale tadasana,

Hands at your sides.

Inhale arms reach high,

Exhale forward fold.

Inhale to lift halfway and then step your right foot back,

Lower your right knee down to the mat and find a low lunge.

If you'd like to bring some blocks underneath your hands here,

You can.

Take a moment to lengthen through your spine,

Press into your front foot and if you'd like to,

You can rise up in the torso and allow the hands to rest on your front knee,

On your hips or at heart center.

If you are using blocks,

You can keep your hands resting on those.

We're going to breathe for a few breaths here in this hip flexor stretch.

If there's any movement calling out to you in this pose,

Feel free to take it.

Take one more inhale and exhale.

And then as you're ready,

A few rows in the torso,

Bring your hands back down to the mat or to blocks and send your hips back,

Straightening through that left leg,

Flexing the left toes for half splits.

You can keep a soft bend in your left knee here,

An option to keep your spine long or you can round through your upper back and bring your forehead towards your knee.

Additional option to walk your fingertips over to the left side and we'll take three deep rounds of breath in our half splits.

Inhale deeply and as you exhale,

Roll back forward through your front foot.

You're going to plant the palms,

Lift the back knee and step your right foot up to the top,

Finding a halfway lift.

Exhale forward full.

Inhale rise all the way up,

Urdhva Hastasana.

Exhale hands to heart center,

Samasthiti.

Inhale here and exhale Tadasana.

Urdhva Hastasana,

Arms reach high.

Exhale forward fold.

Inhale to lift halfway and step your left foot back,

Lowering the left knee down to the earth,

Maybe using blocks here if you did on the other side.

Taking a moment to lengthen through your spine and press into your front foot and rise in the torso if you did so before.

Arms can rest on the knee,

The hips or at heart center.

And take a few rounds of breath here in this hip flexor stretch.

Inhale in and exhale out.

If you rose in the torso,

Bring your hands back down to the mat and send your hips back for half splits on this side.

Maybe keeping a soft bend in your right knee with the toes flexed up towards the sky.

Same option to keep the spine long or to round through the upper back and maybe bring the right fingertips off to the right side.

Take three rounds of breath here.

Inhale in and as you exhale roll back forward in that front foot.

So plant the palms,

Lift the back knee and step that left foot up to the top finding a halfway lift.

Exhale to fold.

Root to rise,

Urdhva histasana,

Arms reach high and exhale hands to heart center samasthiti.

Inhale in.

Exhale tadasana.

Urdhva histasana,

Arms reach high and exhale forward fold.

Inhale to lift halfway.

Exhale to plant your palms and step back to downward facing dog.

Take an inhale in here and an exhale out.

Begin to lower your knees as wide as the mat,

Big toes touch for an extended child's pose.

Lengthening your fingertips and the crown of the head towards the front of the mat allowing your hips to be nice and heavy and open towards your heels.

Take three rounds of breath here and on your next inhale begin to press into your palms rising through a table top just transitioning into a seat with our legs extended out long.

You might have a soft bend in your knees here.

On an inhale we will reach the arms up towards the sky,

Flex your toes and then begin to fold over your legs grabbing whatever part of the leg is available to you.

And you can keep your spine lengthened or you can round through the upper back bringing your forehead towards your knee.

Take a few rounds of breath here breathing into the backs of the legs and into the back body.

On your next inhale begin to roll up through the spine,

Bring the soles of your feet together knees wide and you can interlace the fingers around your big toes or you can grab your ankles.

Sit up nice and tall through your spine and then bend at your elbows and draw the heart space towards the earth as you bring the forehead towards your feet.

Taking a few breaths in Baddha Konasana creating space in your low back,

The outer hips and the groin.

On your next inhale begin to roll back up through your spine,

Cross your legs,

Reach your arms up towards the sky and then bring your hands back down to heart center.

Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

I'll see you in the next practice.

Namaste

Reviews

Well directed and loved the use of language throughout.

Lovely morning flow 🙂

Awesome start to the day, thank you so much ❤️

Beautiful grounding and relaxing practice! Thanks for sharing! 🙏🏻

Energizing, perfect for starting the day on a good note. And my hips just feel so good after this. 🙏💜