Brighter Side

(waves crashing) Namaste. It's time to brighten up. So come join me on the mat. So let's stand at first, and in the standing you're gonna feel the whole body connecting to the earth. You been sleeping all night, now we're gonna be waking all day.

So as the legs descend down, I want you to feel that energy move all the way up the body, and bring the arms up. And as the arms come up, I like to do this thing, this little rib slide thing. So slide the ribs from side to side, you still feel the Earth under you. Oh, it feels so good. And then the legs bend and as your legs bend, they may be a little cranky, they're gonna bend, bend 'til you're comfortable in your knees.

Arms keep extending, and the power of the body starts to pulsate through the body and you start to bring all that sunshine into the inside of the body. Bend a little deeper, and as you're bending, you're gonna fold forward, fold, fold, fold. Come into that forward fold, relax the spine. Take a few nice deep breaths. And as you inhale this next time, roll yourself into a squat.

Now the heels can lift, stay comfortable in your knees, and you can kind of shimmy the body from side to side. Feels good, it wakes the feet up, the toes like it. We're gonna come back up bringing weight into the heels, so take your hands to your thighs and start on an inhale, just to that L-shape, nice exhalation, inhaling again, feel that nice long spine. Here we go again, the next time you inhale, moving our way into letting the legs bend, back into this beautiful seated warrior pose. Interlacing the hands and rolling the palms out, feel the power in the legs, keep pressing through the legs.

As you inhale, open yourself to standing. A few good deep breaths here. Your next exhalation, go ahead and take a little bit of a back bend, you should stay comfortable in the back. And then exhaling, the arms release, the body folds all the way down. Inhale, let's lift the head just a little bit, straighten the spine just a little bit, and exhale.

Come on into your downward dog. In this downward dog you'll take a few breaths. Releasing the hips from side to side. Things are probably a little warmer, a little more awake. From here you're gonna lift both heels and descend both heels, inhale as you lift them, exhale as you release them.

Inhale as you lift, exhale as you release, continue that exhalation until you come into hands and knees position. In the hands and knees position lets take our ribs again from side to side. Even breathing, you're looking to feel the sensations in the ribs of that nice yummy stretch. Coming back to center, we're gonna move towards our first standing poses. So take your right leg forward, plant it on the mat.

Both legs are gonna move towards straight. Make sure you feel steady. If you feel unsteady, take that foot a little more to the outside of the mat. Then I'm just gonna roll my left arm up, take some nice deep breaths here. Your next exhalation the arm is gonna come down, the knee is gonna come down, then we'll inhale again and float the arms up.

A little modified warrior here. Interlace your hands and roll the palms out. I like to keep my back toes tucked under, gives me a little more push and pull with the legs. Can really feel the pose. As you exhale, the hands are gonna come down, straighten that back leg, we'll go for a little more intense warrior.

Arms load up, nice inhalation, you can interlace, if you want, your hands again. And then you'll exhale, arms will come down. Launch yourself just a little bit so that back leg will come up, I know you can feel the body warming and maybe there are some muscles that are burning a little bit, that's just the sunshine, shining inside your body. Here we go, we're gonna let the back leg bend a little bit, the front leg bend, step your way back into a downward facing dog, take a few breaths here. Down to your knees.

Slide the ribs, side to side. Chance for the heart rhythm to normalize, your breathing to normalize. Now we'll take the opposite leg forward, for me that's my left leg. I'm gonna line up my hand again, both legs are gonna move towards straight as I go into triangle pose and I slide that right arm up. Take some nice breaths here.

On your next exhalation that arm's gonna come down, your back knee is gonna come down. Remember, you want some space in between those. Arms will float up as you inhale, nice and long in the spine. It sort of feels like I'm squeezing my inner thighs towards each other to further invigorate the legs. Your next exhalation the hands can come down.

We're gonna straighten that back leg. You could always do this on the knee both times if you need to, every morning is a little different. Nice breaths. As you exhale, this next time, hands come forward, launch yourself forward, lift that back leg, that right leg, and fold. Feel the heat.

There's a lot going on here, muscles are working hard. So your breath may accelerate, your heart may accelerate a little bit, all the more to wake you up. Back legs gonna bend, front leg bends, back to downward dog. Long spine. Go ahead now and bend the legs from side to side, working out any tension you might have in the hips from those postures.

And rolling down to your knees, keep the toes curled under if they don't mind that too much, and from this position we'll slide the ribs from side to side again. Keep the toes curled under, that just helps to continue to wake the feet up. And then sink back into your heels. Nice even breaths here. Uncurl your toes.

Sit back on your heels. Interlace your hands, and roll the palms up. Nice stretch through the back body. Back to hands and knees. Here we go, we're moving into the squat, toes curl under, walking myself back.

Nice deep, even squat. You can practice the balance. And then practice straightening the legs, coming into forward fold. Bend those knees, rolling yourself up. Here we are in that warrior pose again, legs working, slowly going to straight.

Reaching into that little back bend. Arms floating down. Walking yourself slowly to the front of the mat. Feel the warmth, feel the sunshine inside of you. Make this a beautiful day for yourself.

Namaste.