Welcome and good morning welcome to this quick simple morning yoga practice this one we call it ignite because it's kind of like starting the fire of the day kind of hopefully Feeling uplifted by the end,
A little bit clearer,
Like the cobwebs have just been blown away,
Or breathed away,
And hopefully a little bit more energised and ready to begin your day.
So start seated.
I'm sitting on a block.
You can sit on anything you like,
A cushion or just on the floor.
Lengthen your spine soften your shoulders feel that length through the back of your neck And then as always,
You have the option to invite your eyes to close or just kind of take a soft gaze in front of you.
We'll do a breathwork practice in a moment,
But just for now,
Meet yourself where you are.
Notice how you're feeling.
And notice too,
Sometimes we wake up in the morning and we feel a bit groggy or a bit.
.
.
Like we haven't slept very well or like we're already behind,
You know?
If you're feeling like that then please invite a little bit of compassion towards yourself and just anchor into the feeling that What we're doing here is actually intentionally shifting our state.
We're shifting our perspective.
So we're already winning in a way.
Winning the day just by being here ready to move and breathe.
And then we'll begin with a few rounds of Kapalabhati.
Some know that one as Breath of Fire,
But it's actually translated as something else.
It actually translates to Skull Shining,
Which doesn't sound very nice.
We can see why most people call it something else.
But that's really the power of this one for me.
It's one I do almost every day,
And it really does have that kind of.
.
.
Mind clearing effect for me.
So with Kapalabhati,
What we're doing is a forceful exhale,
Passive inhale.
So you can place your hand on your belly to help,
It's still new to this practice.
And what you're doing is contracting your navel back towards your spine to force the air out.
Through your nose and we do that as rapidly as we can.
Ideally we're going to do two rounds of 20.
However,
If you're new to the practice,
That might feel a little bit strong,
In which case maybe do two rounds of ten.
You can place your hand on your belly as I said or just rest your arms down if you're quite familiar with this one.
Whenever you're ready,
Take a big inhale.
And as you exhale,
Force the air out through your nose and repeat.
After that round of 20 or 10,
If you're newer to the practice,
Just take a full exhale.
Notice again how you're feeling,
How your breath feels.
And then we're going to do that again.
So once again,
Maybe doing 20,
Or if you're newer to the practice,
Do 10.
Take a big inhale.
And forceful exhale.
Completely exhale on the last one.
And then just return back to a natural rhythm of breathing.
And just notice how you're feeling after that one.
Okay,
Then let's get moving.
If you're sat on something like I am,
A block or a cushion,
Move it out of the way for a second.
I'm going to turn this way just so you can see,
But you won't probably have to do that.
I have my legs crossed.
You can have soles and feet together if that's more comfortable and available for your body.
And then just bring your fingertips together,
Interlace your fingers together.
If you have something like arthritis,
Then I wouldn't suggest doing this.
I would suggest holding your hands like this.
But otherwise,
Press the palms of your hands away.
Round your upper back.
Really scoop your abdomen in.
So really draw your navel back towards your spine.
As you press your hands away,
So there's kind of a spin of opposition.
Moving the hands away as you round your back towards the back of your mat.
Inhale raise your arms all the way up as you do that lengthen and lift your ribs up and out from your hips And then we're going to do that again.
So lower the arms down.
As you exhale,
Intulate or hold your hands together,
Press the palms of your hands away,
Round your spine.
Maybe look towards your neighbor or look down towards the floor.
Inhale,
Reach your arms all the way up towards the sky.
And then exhale,
Lowering your hands down.
Bring your hands towards your knees.
You're going to move through like a cat and cow type movement,
But from a seated position.
So inhale,
Kind of tilting your powers forward,
Opening your chest.
Look up towards the ceiling.
Exhale round your spine,
Push round your spine,
Draw your navel back towards your spine Inhale,
Arch,
Pull with your hands.
Exhale round.
Do a few more of those in your own time.
Feeling into that energy starting to make its way moving through your spine Maybe do one more.
I'm going to just come to a gentle seat.
Let's come onto all fours.
So finding your way to all fours.
Let's come into a child's pose.
Big toes together,
Knees wide.
Now,
Before we come into our child's pose,
I actually have to ban myself from doing child's pose first thing in the morning because I find I get a little bit too sleepy there.
To counteract,
But I want to have that big expansion through the spine.
So to counteract that sleepy feeling,
Really focus on the stretch.
So walking your hands forward as you sink your hips back.
Your hips really lengthen back and keep walking your fingertips forwards.
You can kind of sway a little bit into it.
As you sway,
Keep walking your fingertips forwards.
Settle into it for a moment really feeling the breath into the side of the ribcage back of the ribs And then we'll come into a side body stretch.
So walking your hands over to the right side,
Place your left hand on top of right.
Again,
Reaching back with the left hip as you reach forward with the left hand.
As you inhale,
Come back to centre.
Walk your hands over to the left side.
Right palm goes on top of left.
Again,
Anchoring the right hip back as you reach with your right hand.
Inhale coming back to center just spend a breath here in child's pose just to even out the spine again And then as you inhale,
Come back up onto all fours.
We'll make our way into a down-facing dog.
So tuck the toes under.
Before we come into down dog,
Reach your hips back.
So kind of stretching the soles of your feet by stretching your toes back here on the floor.
And then whenever you're ready gently lift your hips up As always in Down Dog,
Hands are shoulder distance apart,
Feet about hip distance apart.
Maybe just pedal through your feet.
Bending and straightening,
One leg at a time.
Find a little bit of stillness as always with our down dog what's most important is not having your heels on the ground what's more important is having length in your back body so maybe bend the knees really reach your hips back And then as you inhale walk your feet towards the top of your mat.
Feet come hip distance apart.
Take hold of your elbows.
Just hang here in your rag doll position.
So softening your upper body over lower body.
Really lengthening your spine.
Then lower your hands down you can bring your hands to fingertips or onto blocks if you like from here we're going to bend and straighten one leg at a time when i say straighten i don't mean completely straight i mean opening the knee joint as much as is comfortable for you this morning so maybe bending the left knee a bit more straightening the right leg more And then switch,
Bending the right knee,
Straightening the left.
Switch notice that your hips will kind of sway a bit side to side when you do this and just allow that to happen It kind of intensifies the stretch to the outsides of the hips And then come back into that ragdoll bend both knees.
But this time with your hands you can either take hold of your elbows behind your back or interlace your fingers together.
Allow your fists to come down in the direction of the floor.
Or move away from your body anyway.
Breathe into that big shoulder opening,
Nice heart opening stretch.
And then bring your fists back towards your hips lower your hands back towards the floor keeping your knees bent slowly roll up one vertebra at a time Hair comes up last.
And then step your feet together Feet come as close together as comfortable.
Head,
Heart,
Hips and feet,
Back to the top of each other.
See if you can find that lift between the ribs and the hips.
Not so much that you're flaring your ribs out,
But just so that you feel that kind of core space.
As you inhale raise your arms up towards the ceiling.
As you exhale,
Fall forwards,
Knees bent all straight.
Inhale,
Come up halfway so your hands come to shins.
Exhale now,
Just step your left foot back.
So plant your hands down,
Step the left foot back,
Left knee comes down towards the mat first.
Let's come into a low lunge.
We'll just squeeze the inner thighs together.
Feel that sense of a little bit of activation through the left glute.
Lift your chest up.
If it's a little bit too much here you can place your hands on blocks just to lift your chest a little bit higher.
And then we're going to come up into a high lunge here.
So keep the left toes tucked under.
Really energised through the right knee.
Squeeze your inner thighs together.
And then when you're ready,
Straighten the left knee.
Squeeze that left foot.
Squeeze the inner thighs and reach your arms all the way up.
Hands can be apart all together.
Exhale lower all the way down now step your right foot back to a plank or you can come on to all fours plank pose or all fours and then make your way all the way to the ground bring your knees down or come through chaturanga dandasana Point your toes.
Inhale,
Come to cobra.
Send your elbows back as your chest reaches forwards.
As you exhale,
You have a choice.
You can either take child's pose for five breaths.
Or take down facing dogs.
Five breaths in either one.
If you're in down dog and you want to continue bending and straightening your knees,
Go ahead.
And then we'll do those two lunges on the other side.
So now we're stepping left foot forwards.
Right knee comes down to the mat.
Again,
You can come up onto your fingertips,
Squeeze your inner thighs together as your heart lifts high.
Look up,
Look forward to it all the way up.
Squeezing those inner thighs,
A little bit of awakening or activation happening in the right glute.
Then once you're ready we're going to come up into that high lunge so keep the right toes tucked under squeezing everything towards the midline and when you feel strong bring your right knee up to the floor really reaching back with the right heel Inhaling the arms all the way up,
Hands apart all together.
Exhale,
Lower all the way down.
We're going to come through that vinyasa again.
So stepping the left foot back,
You can lower down knees,
Chest and chin or Chaturanga Dandasana.
Inhale either finding cobra or upwards facing dog provided you have no back pain.
Knees up the floor,
Hips up the floor.
And then exhale either to child's pose or down dog again for five breaths Listening to that flow of breath.
Now from wherever you are we're going to step the right foot forwards once again So stepping the right foot in between your hands.
This time spinning your left heel down.
We're going to come into a side angle pose.
So bringing your right elbow to your right thigh.
Reach your left arm all the way up and over.
Side angle pose here.
Big side body stretch.
We're going to come into a reverse warrior,
So keeping your legs exactly as they are,
Windmill your arms up,
Bring your left hand towards your left thigh,
Reach your right arm all the way up and over.
You can look up towards the ceiling.
Or all the way to that right hand.
And as you exhale,
Windmill your hands down.
And step your left foot back and we're just going to come straight to down facing dog here and then we'll come to the other side Now step your left foot forwards.
And spin your right heel down And come up into that side angle pose.
So I'll be facing the wrong way for you.
But place your left elbow to left thigh.
Reach your right arm all the way up and over.
While you're here,
See if you can really lift yourself out from that front leg,
So we're not dumping all the weight here.
See if you can really stay strong in your legs.
On your next inhale we'll come into that reverse warrior,
So windmilling your arms over.
Keeping your legs as they are,
Right hand comes to right thigh,
Reach your left arm up and over.
As you inhale,
We'll inhale your hands again either side over that left foot.
We're gonna come all the way down to the ground once again.
Inhale come to your cobra or your upwards facing dog if you'd like to.
As you exhale take down facing dog.
Inhale,
Just come to your knees.
As always with postures where we're on our knees,
If it feels a bit crunchy underneath those knees,
You can double up on your mat or just place an extra towel or something underneath.
Knees are about hip distance apart.
We're just going to come towards an end with a version of a camel pose.
This one,
Camel can be quite a big back bend,
But just for that sense of release and opening through the chest in the morning can be really nice and energising.
So knees on the hips,
Hands towards the back of the hips.
And see if you could,
Again,
Lift your ribs up and out from the hips.
Roll your shoulders back.
As your hips press forwards,
Lift your chest high.
Just look up towards the ceiling.
Five breaths like that.
Squeeze your shoulder blades towards each other.
Inhale to come all the way up to straight again.
Sit your hips down.
Have a little wriggle.
And then counterbalance that with a moment in child's pose.
So bring your hands forward,
Forehead down towards the mat.
Take a moment here in child's pose,
Just feeling again that stretch to the back body.
And then whenever you're ready,
Come up to a seat and then we're gonna come to lay down for a moment.
Laying down on your mat.
Kind of hugging your knees in towards your chest.
Massaging out your lower back if it feels like you need it and then we're going to end with a gentle twist so bring your arms out into a t-shape allow your knees to fall towards the ground on the right side can use a block under or between your knees that can be nice and helpful sometimes to make it a little bit more restful And then if you have that block between your knees,
Take it with you.
So we'll come over to the other side.
Bring your knees back into centre.
Straighten your spine if you feel like your hips have kind of moved to one side.
And then bring your knees over to the left side.
Again,
Placing a block if you'd like to under or between your knees.
Maybe look over the right shoulder.
As you inhale,
Bring your knees back to center.
Let go of any prop that you had.
Rest here for a moment with your spine straight.
You can rest with the soles of the feet on the floor if you'd like to.
Or maybe come into a gentle Sipta Padokhanasa.
Bring the soles of the feet together.
Reach your arms out to the side or just place your hands on your belly.
Just taking a few breaths here just to soften,
Relax and receive the effects of the practice we've just done.
That very short,
Spicy,
Uplifting morning sequence.
Hopefully feeling a little bit more energized.
Uplifted and kind of like the cobwebs have been cleared.
As always,
You can rest here like this for as long as you have time for.
But for those of you ready to move on with your day,
So maybe gently bring your knees together,
Hug your knees in towards your chest.
And then make your way up to a seat either by rolling onto your side or just rolling all the way up.
Take a second just to find that alignment through your spine,
Head,
Heart and hips back from top of each other.
Thank you very much everyone for joining me today for today's Ignite.
Morning yoga flow i hope you enjoyed that i hope that you found it helpful i hope you feel a little bit uplifted and wishing you all a lovely day see you next time
