Doing somatic yoga first thing in the morning is a wonderful way to set the tone for your day.
I invite you to join me in this beautiful morning practice that resets your nervous system and helps you ground within your body.
Remember,
You can always opt out of anything that I might suggest if it feels uncomfortable to you.
We're going to do a beautiful moving meditation that will wake up each part of our body and it's connected to the chakras.
Place your hands beside you on the surface that you're sitting on.
Feel free to close your eyes or leave them open.
We're going to do what's called a faux yawn.
Begin to settle in if you're closing your eyes like I am.
Lovely.
Start to feel your sit bones against the surface you are sitting on.
Notice the textures.
Of that surface beneath your fingertips.
Beginning to dial into your presence.
You are here.
About to start your day.
When you are ready,
Send up your arms over your head.
Begin to tense up,
Pushing your shoulders towards your ears,
Curling your hands into fists.
Start tensing slightly,
Slightly.
We're mimicking a yawn,
How the body reacts to a yawn.
Notice how your cat and dog wake up when they tense up their body.
It's the same thing.
So tense,
Tense,
Tense a little bit more.
Ah,
Sigh out.
Bring your arms down to touch the earth again.
We're going to do one more.
And if one was enough,
No problem.
Just be.
Whenever you are ready,
Round two.
Bringing your arms up.
Begin to tense.
Pushing those shoulders towards the ears.
Curling your hands into fists.
Squeeze,
Squeeze from head to toe.
Hold on if you can,
If you can't,
No worries.
Sigh,
Drip down,
Completely release,
Even shake out.
Your arms and your legs a little bit Come back into an easy sitting position.
Let's absorb what took place.
That was a common somatic movement called pandiculation.
It signals to your brain that the body can relax at the neuromuscular level.
How did that feel?
Perhaps you are sensing body parts tingling.
Or you feel more alert.
These are common reactions.
Another way I like to see it is your body is asking you to hold.
Space for it.
Perhaps you can say yes today.
If you had your eyes closed,
Gently open them.
We're going to flow into what's next,
Coming into tabletop.
If you're sitting on the edge of your bed,
Just push up like we are pushing up.
Into a standing position.
Bring your legs hip width.
Do not lock your knees if you can.
Keep them buoyant.
Let your arms come by your sides.
And begin to lock in with your feet.
Gently.
Gently,
Just feeling your feet against the ground.
I invite you to next explore something fun with me.
Swaying side to side.
Start swaying on your feet,
Side to side,
Whatever direction you want to start.
You can sway with your heels,
Lift it up a little bit.
If you do feel more rooted today,
You can just keep your entire foot down.
Experiment with swaying like this.
I encourage you to add on now.
Instead of side to side,
Go back.
And forth now.
Side to side.
Maybe you'll fall like I almost did.
And that's part of play.
Which is also how we can learn to balance.
Side to side What we're trying to do is find our center.
Eventually,
Find it.
And land somewhere in the middle.
Feel your toes the balls of your feet your arches your heels Notice the feedback coming in.
From your feet.
Into the floor.
And imagine your body rising up from that.
Like a strong tree.
Begin to hear.
Or note the familiar sounds.
In your morning.
Perhaps there are birds singing outside.
Or you might hear,
Faint traffic noise.
Your coffee maker percolating.
The dog snoring.
The cat meowing.
Hear all those sounds now.
Perhaps you can also.
.
.
Posit that these sounds so familiar.
Are part of your safety network.
You are in your private space.
Where you can work things out and be.
That in fact,
You are also the center of these familiar things.
Just like the sun.
How it rises every day.
It's consistent,
Constant.
You could also be that consistent,
Constant force for yourself.
When you need it.
We're now going to flow and use our prana because breath is also a signal to the parasympathetic.
We're going to start supporting our crown area,
Our head,
And also our throat chakra.
Begin by dropping your chin towards your chest,
But opening your hands and placing your palms against your forehead.
Noticing how you can support yourself.
Add a little tension even if it feels good to do that.
What that means is pushing your forehead into your hands and your hands into your forehead,
But not intensely,
Slightly.
Just see how that feels.
And what we're going to do next is inhale and open the throat chakra.
So pushing your head back.
Inhale pushing letting your throat open This is your communication tool.
That you may have lost.
And now,
You have it back.
Exhale,
Drop your chin.
Keep cradling your head.
Always remember,
Whatever we're doing,
Whether we're doing rocking on the heels,
You can opt out of these things at all times.
If this doesn't feel good to you,
Just sit and be or stand and be.
Second time,
We're going to do this two more times.
Inhaling,
Pushing up.
Opening your throat Now you can try and speak your truth,
The truth you couldn't speak before.
Exhale,
Drop your chin.
Rest for a moment.
Last one.
Inhale.
Greet that morning.
Let those sunlight drop.
Slip through.
And yes,
Now you can consider boundaries,
Boundaries that you were unable to set before.
Exhale.
Drop your chin.
Drop your hands by your sides.
Bring your head to center.
We're going to flow next and open our chest.
Place your left hand on your heart space,
Your right hand over it.
Begin to see if you can breathe into your heart.
As you inhale into your belly,
Can you send that breath upwards towards your chest.
Feeling the heartbeat.
Beneath your hands.
The heart chakra is representative of many things,
But one of the things I love about it is it represents moving forward.
Let's do that by flowing now.
Inhaling,
Opening your arms up.
Bring your chin up.
Look up to the sky.
Greeting hi.
Saying hello to yourself and to the morning and the sun.
Exhaling,
Encasing your heart again.
Knowing that you can protect it but you can also open it when you have choices Inhaling,
We're gonna do this two more times.
Opening up.
Bringing your chin up.
Lucky now.
Surveying,
Even if you can,
Looking left and right.
That feels too activating.
Don't.
Now,
Exhale,
Come into a self-hug,
Placing your hands on each shoulder.
Can you give yourself a future knowing that you deserve one?
Last one.
Inhaling,
Shining that heart forward.
Opening through your chin.
Exhale,
Switch your hands over on your self hug.
Giving yourself a soothing touch.
Even swaying side to side.
But also knowing you can open a little bit at a time.
There's no rush.
Flowing next downwards.
We're going to place our hands.
Our navel which is basically over your belly button place your hands there Begin to add your breath.
Exaggerate it slightly.
When you inhale,
Fill up your belly,
Expand it.
Exhale contract feeling it coming back in towards your body Prana is your source.
It's one of the biggest things that helps your nervous system.
Inhaling.
Pushing out.
Filling up yourself with life.
Exhaling,
Expelling life towards the outside world that you can maybe trust life.
And that's what your solar plexus chakra is.
It's about your instincts.
We're going to flow.
Try to flow out through your back body as well.
So when you inhale,
Inhale through your back body.
Exhale,
Contract on both sides.
And then also bring in your side body.
When you inhale,
See if you can breathe through your ribs.
We're going to bring our arms up and then forward.
Three movements each.
Dial in now with me if you can.
Opt out if you can't.
No worries.
Begin by keeping your knees buoyant as much as possible.
Inhale through your side body,
Bring your arms Maybe putting your hands into like almost a star position.
Beautiful.
Contract your sides.
Two more times inhale through your side body stretching up Excellent.
Bring that down.
Coming into yourself.
Knowing that you can trust you,
But then be able to trust others.
Last one.
Inhale.
Side body.
Throwing your hands into star shapes.
Being strong because you are.
Exhale,
Bring your arms down.
We'll switch up to the front and this time try to breathe through your front and back body as you bring your arms up.
Let's begin inhaling front and back body.
Bring your arms up.
Opening from the front and the back.
Sending that sunshine in both directions,
Exhaling,
Coming down with your hands and arms.
Next one.
Inhale,
Front and back.
Shine,
Shine,
Shine.
Bring your arms up.
Keeping that star shape with your hands.
Exhale.
Coming down.
Let those arms rest on your thighs for a moment.
Last one,
Inhale.
Groove.
Bringing your arms up.
Extend your star hands.
Exhale,
Coming down.
Ooh,
Wonderful,
Lovely.
Are you feeling your body opening now,
Getting ready for your day,
For the rest of your week?
Next.
We're going to touch upon our sacral chakra and our root chakra.
Your sacral chakra is below your belly button.
You can bring your hands there.
And as you breathe,
You can feel also your breath.
Filling that space.
Your root chakra is around your tailbone area.
These are so interconnected because your sacral is about connection and your root chakra is about steadiness.
Safety,
Being grounded.
And when we connect to ourself and to others,
We do so by having both in place,
Feeling that safety so that you can connect to others.
We'll flow with this.
How we're going to do that is come into a curl,
Coming into like a semi-mini squat here.
And flowing with a curl like a cat curling up and coming down and touching the ground but if you can't just stay up or even coming up higher if you want and just doing a little mini curl giving yourself options always And then we're going to shoot up and root down.
So let's do this together.
Coming into like a mini squat.
Inhaling again,
Bringing up prana and inhaling and curling into that cat.
Sending that sunshine out your back.
Exhaling,
Touching the earth.
Inhaling pushing up through bringing your star hands into it and coming back into that little mini squat.
Or Standing up higher.
Inhaling,
Curl up.
Coming down,
Touching the earth,
Knowing that you are supported.
Pushing up and excelling like a star because you feel safe.
Coming back down in that mini squat.
Last one.
I'll do it from the front so you can see.
Curling and then coming down.
Exhaling touching earth pushing through your feet.
You're rooted and you can excel and shine.
Ah,
Beautiful.
Next,
We're going to balance.
The center of who you are.
By doing a little side bend.
And bringing our foot out.
And I'll show you how this works.
This kind of complete the sequence of opening each chakra for the day.
How that works is we can breathe into our side body as we did before.
Bringing your arm up and you can add a little dance move.
If you like,
Or another option is to bring your elbow up if it's hard to bring your arm up.
Or just keep your arm up and not incorporate the dance move.
But let's try to do this together.
And see what happens.
Again,
Keeping your knees buoyant.
Using your prana inhaling through the side body i'm going to do my right side first but whatever side works for you start there inhaling through there filling it up i mean you can put your hand and feel how your breath moves in this part of your body.
And perhaps this is even new to you,
Not breathing in the side body.
It could be a strange concept,
But trying it.
Inhaling,
Bringing your arm up And then adding that dance move.
Hold for a second.
Exhaling coming back in again this even plays with a little bit of balance not intensely but slightly We're going to do two more.
Inhaling through that side body feeling with your hand how it fills up billows Bring up your arm and then add in your fun dance move.
X.
Coming back.
Last one on this side.
And if you can try,
Try to even direct.
The side.
The side move from your ribs.
Rather than doing it from your arms.
So bending through your ribs.
Inhaling you can see how my body kind of moves to the side naturally And then bringing in your arm and touching earth with your foot.
Exhaling coming back we'll do the same thing on this side touching your ribs again to feel where your breath comes from and where it goes.
This is a lot of also body awareness.
Ready?
Inhale through your side body,
Bringing in your arm now and then adding the touch of your toes.
You can even play with this a little bit.
And come up and down,
But no need to if you don't want to.
Exhaling,
Coming back.
Centering again before we do the two more.
Putting your hand here to begin to feel how the breath moves.
Inhaling through your side body bringing up your arm overhead feeling that stretch adding your foot you can even turn your foot play around as i said or keep it here or even if you want to press your foot down sometimes that feels nice Coming back,
Exhaling.
Last one.
Adding your hand if you like,
I always do,
Inhaling,
Adding that side bend.
Throwing in the foot.
Exhaling coming back to center.
Then.
Letting yourself stand still for just a few seconds.
Let's integrate.
Absorb everything that took place.
Does your body feel open?
Alive.
Glowing a little even.
And maybe you can bring this sense of centeredness.
And openness.
Into your life,
Into your day.
But if something feels far away,
That's okay too.
We treat ourselves with loving kindness and non-judgment.
Perhaps you had your eyes closed.
If you did,
You can open them.
It was amazing to spend our morning together.
This is a wonderful practice to do daily,
If you like.
It was incredible to connect.
And it's really sunny here,
So I hope it's sunny where you are.
Sending love today.
We'll see you next time.
