Beginning in Child's Pose,
Balasana,
Coming down onto your mat,
Kneeling and lowering your torso,
Your front body over and landing on your thighs.
Your sit bones rest on the top of your heels and the tops of your feet and shin bones pressing down onto your mat.
With your chest lying on your thighs,
Your forehead lands gently on your mat and if you are more comfortable,
Rest your forehead on a blanket if you like.
Arms alongside your body,
Palms facing up or extending your arms out in front of you and the palms facing down.
Begin to notice your breath.
Back body opens and lengthens.
Breathe into your back ribs.
Allow your shoulder blades to fall open.
Lengthen the space between your ears to the tops of your shoulders,
Releasing any tension being held there.
Relax your jaw,
Relax your tongue in your mouth.
Breathing nice,
Long,
Slow inhales and long,
Slow exhales.
Back body opens and lengthens.
Inhaling calm and exhaling ease.
Nice,
Long,
Slow,
Deep breaths through your nose and nice,
Long,
Slow,
Deep exhales through your nose.
From here,
We will transition to hero pose.
So keeping your shin bones on your mat,
Bring your palms under your shoulders and slowly press upward out of child's pose to sit tall on your shin bones.
Spine lengthens.
Lift your hands out in front of you,
In front of your chest.
Interlace your fingers and stretch overhead with the palms facing up towards the ceiling.
Full inhale and long exhale.
On your next inhale,
Rotate over just a little bit to your right side so you'll feel a nice stretch in your left side ribs.
Exhaling back to center and inhale,
Now leaning over to your left and feeling a nice,
Long stretch in your right side.
Breathing in and breathing out and returning back to center.
Shin bones remaining on the mat.
Lengthen that spine.
Nice,
Long breath,
Inhaling.
And then we're going to bring our left palm to our right knee or just outside of that right knee.
Exhale,
Twisting your torso to the right and your right palm comes behind you.
Twisting,
Gazing,
And following the gaze to the right.
A nice,
Gentle twist for the side body.
Inhale,
Calm,
And exhale,
Ease here.
Spin back to center,
Closing your eyes.
Inhale,
Belly expands and rounds.
Exhale,
Belly towards the spine.
And letting that go.
We'll repeat now on our left side.
So inhale,
Right hand lands on the left knee or just on the outside of it.
Lengthen your spine.
Exhale,
Twist the torso to the left and the left hand lands behind the body.
Follow the twist with your gaze.
Long breath in and a slow exhale through our mouth here.
Returning back to center.
And closing our eyes once again.
Breath in,
Belly expands in all directions.
Exhale,
Belly curves in toward the spine.
From here,
We're going to shift forward,
Placing our palms underneath our shoulders,
Our knees are under our hips,
And we're in tabletop with a neutral spine to begin.
From here,
We're going to move into some cat and cow,
Offering some fluid movement in our spine.
A nice warm-up before we move into some sun salutations.
So inhale,
Cow,
The belly descends,
The sit bones lift and face the wall behind you.
Chest opens and the chin lifts slightly.
Exhale,
Belly towards your spine,
Your back rounds,
Arching like a cat,
And lifting towards the ceiling.
Inhale,
Coming back to cow,
Spinal flexion.
Exhale,
Cat,
Spinal extension.
Inhale,
Flexing the spine.
Exhale,
Extending the spine toward the ceiling.
One more time.
Inhale,
Cow,
Belly descends.
Exhale,
Cat,
The spine comes towards the ceiling and rounds.
And we'll return to tabletop here,
Neutral spine,
Taking a breath in and a breath out.
We're going to move our hands forward,
Lift our knees and just let them hover slightly above the mat in midair.
And then slowly and skillfully,
We're going to move into a bent knee downward facing dog.
So lifting your hips towards the ceiling,
The knees have a generous bend in them.
And now as you raise your sit bones towards the ceiling,
Slowly we're going to lower one heel at a time toward the mat.
And this is going to accommodate the morning tension of the body,
One heel descending at a time.
The heels do not need to touch the mat.
Alternate between the heels releasing towards the floor.
So bending one leg,
The other leg,
The heel goes down and back and forth.
Inhaling and exhaling,
Warming up our calves and our thighs.
Now slowly let both heels come toward the mat.
Inhale calmness and exhale grace.
In our dog with our head between our arms,
Approximately your ears are in line with the creases of the inside of your elbows.
Let's inhale and just round the belly a little bit.
It's kind of tricky to do in downward facing dog.
And then exhale,
Contract the belly towards the spine and let that go.
Slowly walking your feet up to meet your hands,
Placing your feet as wide apart as the mat and releasing from your pelvis into a forward fold,
A nice generous bend in the knees and release the weight of your mind.
Arms dangle towards the mat.
From here we're going to inhale,
Sweep the arms out and coming all the way up,
Torso lifts,
Arms are overhead.
Exhale palms touch and thumbs land on breastbone.
Prayer pose.
Close your eyes here and bring your feet maybe a little closer together as well.
With your eyes closed in your hands in Anjali mudra,
Thumbs on breastbone,
Consider an intention for your day.
Perhaps mindfulness with the challenges that will come and letting go of what does not serve you throughout the day.
Long inhale,
A nice slow exhale through the mouth.
Today I will pause and notice and reflect.
Knowing that my reactions ripple outwards like a stone thrown into a pond.
May I remember to pause,
Notice and reflect before reacting.
From here we're going to move into two half sun salutations.
So from prayer,
Lower your hands,
Inhale sweeping your arms out and up,
A gentle back bend here and then releasing from the pelvis coming down to Uttanasana.
Fingertips graze the mat,
Bend your knees generously and then a halfway lift,
Ardha Uttanasana.
Long spine,
Gaze out at the floor out in front of you.
Release your fingertips toward the mat and hinging back down towards the floor.
Sweeping arms out,
Rising up as your torso comes up.
Palms face one another overhead and coming into Anjali mudra.
Thumbs on breastbone,
Pause in here,
Inhale and then exhale.
We'll do this one more time.
From prayer,
Lowering your hands and inhale,
Sweeping arms out and up,
Stretching through your side body.
Gentle back bend here,
Hinging from your hips,
Coming into Uttanasana.
Bend in your knees if you like,
Fingertips graze the mat and then Ardha Uttanasana.
Halfway lift,
Chest lengthens,
Long spine,
Gaze out at the floor out in front of you.
Releasing from your pelvis,
Fingertips graze the mat,
Sweeping arms out,
Rising up as your torso comes up,
Palms facing one another and coming down into Anjali mudra,
Thumbs resting on your breastbone and pause in here.
Nice long inhale and a slow long exhale.
Offer yourself a smile.
We'll move into our standing flow.
From the top of the mat,
Inhale,
Shift weight to the right side.
We'll lift our left knee up and then step it back behind us.
We're coming into warrior two.
Your front foot faces forward and your back foot at a 45 degree.
Your feet have a space in between them like on a train track.
Let's inhale and as we exhale,
We're going to bend our front knee and you should be able to see your toes.
So don't bend your knee so far that you can't see your toes.
We'll lift our arms to a little bit less than shoulder height.
One arm out in front and one arm back.
Inhaling and exhaling.
And this time as we inhale,
We're going to stretch back through the pinky side of our hands.
And when we do this,
You'll feel your chest rise and you'll feel strength and power in your warrior two.
From here,
We're going to move into triangle.
So we're going to hinge from our pelvis,
Hinging forward,
Front leg comes straight.
So our front arm is out long in front and it slowly descends towards a block where it can land on your shin or the mat.
Rotating from the abdomen,
Ribs and chest,
Turning open,
The opposite arm lifts to the sky and the gaze can follow the hand.
Inhaling calm and exhaling ease in our triangle.
Triangle pose is a wonderful way to release the morning tension in our bodies.
From here,
We're going to move into side angle.
The top arm is going to swing back,
Down,
Around and over the ear.
Front knee now bends and our other hand remains on the mat or the block and we come into a lovely side body stretch.
Inhale and exhale.
Another breath in and out.
And pushing down into the mat with our palm to come all the way up and out of side angle.
Standing now,
We will meet at the top of our mat.
Sweeping the arms out to the side,
Nice tall spine,
Palms touch overhead and lowering down into Anjuli mudra.
Close your eyes.
Nice long breath in and a breath out through your nose.
And offer yourself a smile.
One more time.
From the top of your mat,
Shifting your weight into your other side now,
Lifting your other leg,
Bending at the knee,
Exhale and stepping that foot back.
Front foot facing forward,
Back foot roughly at 45 degrees,
Space between your legs like a train track.
Inhale and exhale,
Bending the front knee,
Arms extending out long below your shoulder height.
Inhale and exhale,
Strong back leg,
Gentle bend in the front knee.
And now inhaling and pushing back through the pinky side of your hands,
Feeling the strength in warrior two.
Moving into triangle,
We're going to come out from our front arm,
Hinging forward and then a slow release of the torso.
The front palm comes to a block,
A shin or the mat,
Rotating from the abdomen,
Ribs and then chest,
Turning open,
The opposite arm lifts to the sky and the gaze can follow that hand.
And inhale here,
Exhale.
One more time,
Inhale,
Releasing all the tension in our body and exhale.
Top arm is going to swing back,
Down and around and over the ear.
Nice breath in,
Front knee bends,
Offering a lovely side body stretch.
Nice long inhale,
Slow,
Steady,
Exhale,
Smile.
Pushing down into the mat with the palm to come all the way up and out of side angle,
Standing and we'll meet at the top of our mat.
Sweeping the arms out one last time,
Palms touch overhead and slow lower down into Anjale Mudra.
Thumbs resting on your breastbone,
Prayer pose,
Close your eyes,
Inhaling and exhaling,
Smile.
Smile just as you would to others.
Offer yourself a little pat on the back for giving yourself time in this practice.
As you go through your day,
Remember the goodness of a morning practice and may this goodness touch others throughout your day.
Thank you for practicing with me and I hope you have a beautiful day.
Namaste.
