Quick Morning Yoga Workout

(wave crashes) Welcome back. There are days where we don't have enough time for an entire practice, but it can be nice to just get moving a bit, get your blood flowing, and look at how you're starting off your day. I've created a practice designed specifically for that. We'll start off just taking a seat and noticing how you're feeling right now. Drop your awareness in and check in with your physical sensations.

That's the way that the body speaks to us. When you pause to listen, what is it that your body's saying? Then shift your awareness to your breath, noticing whether it feels open and expansive or whether it feels constricted in any way. Notice what your energy's like in this moment. Check in with your thoughts, your mood, and pause for a moment to think about how you'd like to feel, creating an intention for yourself, and as we move, moving towards creating that.

Blink your eyes open and bring your hands around to all fours. Spread out your fingers. Flatten out the tops of the feet, and as you breathe in, reach your shoulders back and tilt your hips, and as you exhale, draw your chin in, lifting up into the back body. Inhale, collar bones wide. Exhale, reaching the tail bone down towards your mat.

Inhale, can you make a little more space across the chest? As you exhale, can you move up into that space up between your shoulder blades. Moving back and forth here through Cat and Cow, and for many of us with our lifestyles today, it's the upper back that gets a little more stuck, where the low back has a little more mobility. Try taking your forearms down so that they're parallel to each other, palms flat to the floor, and then see about finding some movement in the upper back as you drop the heart, and then lift it up towards the sky. Shoulders still dropped back, collar bones get wide, but notice how much less room there is in the upper back versus the low back.

(exhales audibly) Trying to breathe some space into that upper back, and bring your hands back down underneath your shoulders, curl your toes under. Lift your knees up off your mat, and take the hips way back to Downward Facing Dog. Starting off with bent knees, it's our first Down Dog of the practice, reaching your thighs way back to get a lot of length in your spine, and pedal back and forth between your feet, reaching down into the right heel and then switching that up and reaching into the left. Look around from side to side. Shake out the head.

(exhales audibly) Come up onto the balls of the feet. Reach down through both the heels. Draw your ribs in towards your butt as you press away from your mat. Then walk your hands back to a Standing Forward Fold. (exhales audibly) From your Standing Forward Fold, take in a big inhalation.

Use that to stack up the bones of your spine, making your way up to standing. Then walk your way up to the front of your mat. Inhale, take your arms up overhead. Exhale, fold forward. (exhales audibly) Breathe in, lift up halfway.

Exhale, fold. Strong through your legs, rise up all the way, and then exhale, bring your hands to your heart. Inhale, breathe your arms back up. Exhale, lift and fold, just a half Sun Salutation. Inhale, lift halfway.

Exhale, fold. Rise up strong through your legs, and breathe out, hands back to your heart. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold forward. Inhale, lift.

Exhale hands down to your mat. Step your left foot back. Drop the back knee. Inhale, reach your arms up overhead. Exhale, hands back down to your mat.

Take the right foot back to meet the left on the knees. Come forward as you bend the elbows. Lower to a hover. Keep the elbows right by your sides, and then drop the belly towards the floor. Press into the tops of the feet as you draw your shoulders back.

Engage the lower abdominals and exhale your way back. As you curl your toes under, lift the hips up and back, Downward Facing Dog. (exhales audibly) Counting out for five breaths here. (breathes audibly) On that fifth exhale, bending your knees, looking forward, stepping the left foot up. Drop the right knee.

Inhale, take your arms up. Exhale, hands down to your mat. Curl the toes under on that back leg. Step that foot forward. Inhale, we lift halfway.

Exhale, fold. Rise up with the breath all the way, and then empty out your breath, hands to your heart. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold forward. Breathe in, lift halfway.

Exhale, hands down. Step both feet back into a high push-up or Plank Pose, feeling really strong here, and then exhale, take your hips back, Downward Facing Dog. Inhale, shift forward, shoulders back over the wrists. Exhale, take it back. Come forward, option to take your knees down if you'd like, and then lift back up to Downward Facing Dog.

Dynamically shifting forward, feeling some movements and activation in the shoulders, in the belly, and then using the legs to take you back to Downward Facing. Bend your knees. Look forward, and step your way up. Inhale, lift halfway. Exhale, fold.

Strong through your legs, come up all the way, and then empty out your breath, hands to your heart. Inhale, reach up. Exhale, fold forward. Breathe in, come up halfway. Hands down, step your feet back.

Option to take the knees or keep onto the tips of the toes as you come forward, lower through. Press away from the mat, and exhale your way back, Downward Facing Dog. Listening for the sound of the exhale, noticing the places that are working, the places that are starting to wake up and enliven, and then bend your knees. Look forward, step your feet up. Inhale, lift halfway.

Exhale, fold. Strong through your legs as you come all the way up, and then get empty, hands to your heart. Pressing the thumbs against the center the chest, notice the warmth that you're creating. Notice how alive you feel. Notice how you bring all your presence into this moment, and know that you can take this with you throughout the rest of your day.

Namaste.