Good morning,
Friends.
Welcome to Yoga for Witches,
A spell of morning life.
As we seek a little sense of clarity,
Renewal and awakening to move into a fresh and hopeful day.
Let's begin by taking a comfortable seat,
So that might be cross-legged for you or any way of being tall and seated and comfortable that feels good in this moment,
On this morning.
You are very welcome to sit in your bed with pillows to prop you up,
And perhaps you gently rest your hands upon your knees or in your lap.
We will begin with soft and easeful breaths to draw in the morning light and sit within a sense of opening,
Of beginning and of arriving.
A simple invocation that you can say aloud or in your mind's eye might be,
I breathe in the morning.
I arrive in this moment.
I begin again.
I breathe in the morning.
I arrive in this moment.
I begin again.
Feel perhaps the day stretch before you like a blank page,
Or a rolling field,
Or a great beautiful expanse of sky.
From here we'll begin our gentle movements just from the seated position and just in our own time.
We might begin with some little shoulder rolls,
So we might draw the shoulders up towards the ears and roll them away.
Gently bringing in that rolling movement,
Clearing away any tension or imagining that you're shrugging off any weight that might be settled upon your shoulders.
You can roll the shoulders backwards or forwards or any combination you wish.
Then as we let the shoulders relax,
From our seated position we would take a few of what we call Sufi circles.
Now it might be easier to imagine that you have a hula hoop around your waist and we're just going to take some little spirals,
Little circling movements of the body as if you were ever so easily rolling that hula hoop around your waist.
We'll just pick the direction.
Gentle movement.
And when you feel ready,
We'll hula hoop in the other direction,
A circle the other way.
And then as we come back to stillness,
What we'll do is we'll reach both hands high towards the sky as if we're reaching skywards.
Lovely extension through the spine,
Through the arms,
All the way up to the fingertips.
Maybe the gaze floats skywards as well if that feels okay for the neck.
And then what we'll do from here is we're just going to let the right hand fall to the earth,
To your right side,
And we're just going to take a little side stretch over to the right.
It doesn't have to be a huge movement,
Be as gentle as you like.
So the right hand is on the earth,
The left is reaching tall and slightly over to the right,
So the arms are almost making a little crescent moon shape.
From here what we'll do is we'll reach the right hand back towards the sky,
So once again we're reaching with both hands high to sky.
And then we'll take it to the other side,
So we let the left hand fall to the earth,
The right hand is reaching tall and just over to the left a little,
Creating a little space in the body,
Perhaps an idea of reaching into the potential of the day.
From here we'll once more come to reaching high to the sky,
So both hands reaching tall,
A final reach up skywards.
And then from here what we're going to do is we're going to hinge from the hips and we're going to reach those arms now towards the earth,
So taking our time from that reaching high,
Gently hinging over to bring the hands towards the earth,
Towards the bed,
To wherever it is that's supporting you.
So a gentle forward fold,
Perhaps over crossed legs,
You can unravel the legs if you prefer and reach them out in front of you.
We're seeking to release any little bits of tension or stiffness this morning,
So if you want to give the head or the shoulders a little wiggle as we settle into this forward fold,
Softening and soothing into place.
And then from the forward fold let's gently rise just back to our easy seated position.
I'll invite you just to move the neck a little bit here,
We'll take this really gently,
We're just going to drop the chin to the chest as if you're looking down towards the ground,
And then we're just going to do some little half rolls.
So what we'll do is we'll take the chin over to one shoulder and then along the front line of the body as if tracing a little curve along the collarbone,
And then the chin comes to the right.
And we're just going to roll side to side,
So just little half circle rolls,
Shoulder to shoulder,
As slowly as you like,
Especially if you've woken up with any tension in the neck.
Or if you prefer just to be still,
You can just let the head rest to one side,
So feel free to listen to the neck,
This can be quite personal,
So we'll just take any movement or stretches that feel okay.
If we're taking those little half rolls,
What we'll do is we'll bring the head back to upright,
And we're just going to do exactly the same,
Letting the head fall back,
So we let the head fall back,
The gaze go skywards,
And again we're just rolling the head from one shoulder to the other in a little half circle.
And once more we can bring the head just to neutral,
So we'll just come back to that to fall asleep.
So from here I invite you just to bring both hands and rest them upon the heart.
Just a lovely moment to bring our awareness to our heart space,
To feel the breath underneath the hands,
And to greet the light,
To greet the morning,
We're going to reach the hands skywards for one last time,
So just going to reach them up tall,
You can take a little wiggle and flex with the arms if you like,
Reach to the sky,
Reach to the sun,
And from here we can just let the hands fall away.
Now I invite you to rest the hands once more,
Either on your legs or upon your lap,
As we take a little moment and pause before we journey into our day.
We'll take a moment to visualise the sun that may shine upon us,
And the sun rising within you,
A warm glow in the centre of your heart and chest.
And we may say aloud or in our mind's eye,
I move into the day with breath,
With ease,
With light.
I move into the day with breath,
With ease,
With light.
And to finish our morning spell,
Our morning practice,
We're going to take one more big inhale and reach the arms skywards,
Reaching tall.
We'll bring the palms together and we'll just exhale the hands to heart centre in prayer.
From here,
If the eyes are closed,
We may gently open them to greet the day.
And here we may bow to ourselves and to each other as I welcome you to the day.
Namaste.
Thank you so much for joining me this morning to start anew.
May your day be bright and light and filled with hope.
And I look forward to journeying with you again soon.
Farewell for now.
