Awaken With Ease

Hi, good morning. This is Robert. Welcome back. This practice is designed to get your day started, I think, in the most positive way. All right, so we're going to move our body in a simple way.

Lie down. Let's get started. So if you lie down on your back, it actually might feel nice if you bend your knees and plant your feet down. You take your feet about as wide as the mat. You might even feel your low back ground a little easier than if your legs were straight.

Take the arms out like a big kind of wing, right? Right arm is a wing, left arm is a wing, lengthen the back of your neck. Before we do anything, let's take three breaths together. Breathe in through your nose. Open the mouth and take like a forever exhale.

Good. Two more. Breathe in, inhale through the nose, exhale, good. One more. Breathe in and exhale, and you can feel, if you're really paying attention, your body starts to relax and soften down into the mat.

Let's add a little movement to the breath. So breathe here, inhalation. Exhale let the knees kind of windshield wiper over to the right. Inhale back up to center and exhale the knees to the left. You may feel this in your hips, your low back.

Good. Breathe in back up to center and exhale to the right. You could pause here, breathe in, and use the exhale to send the legs all the way over to the left. Good. Keep going.

Breathe in and out as you transfer the legs over. Keep checking in with your back. Make sure the back is nice and long and grounded, the back of your neck. This is just a nice way to begin bringing together your breath and movement of your body. Let's go two more times.

Breathe in on each side two times. Breathe out, knees over to the left. If you're on the right, no big deal. Just be opposite. Good.

Inhale back up to center and exhale over to the other side. One more time. Just a full breath in, really take the breath in and let it go as you bring the knees over. Good. I think we've got one more half.

Inhale back up to center and exhale to whichever side you're on. Awesome. Bring it back to center. Now just a full body stretch. Straighten both of your legs.

Reach up overhead. So start to walk your shoulder blades farther. You're trying to get as tall as you can. Maybe even let your back arch a little bit, your ribs come up. Reach through your fingertips.

Reach through your toes. You can curl your toes back toward your knees and push through your heels. Roll your wrists. What an opportunity to start your day consciously rather than just roll out of bed and stumble into the day. One more breath.

Big breath. Stretch. Now exhale. Hug both knees into your chest. Whenever I do this, I hug the knees in and I feel this nice release.

My low back stretches forward and up. Take the right leg, send it out. Actually bend the right leg. Push through the right foot, your hips to the left. So we've got a combination here of a spinal twist.

Take the right hand to your left knee. Left hand reaches out as far as you can, spacious back. Breathe in. Exhale. Draw that left knee across your body over toward the right.

So a little spinal twist to release any tension in your low back. If you've got it, gaze straight up because now we're going to add this. If you keep the knee right wherever it's landed, if it's on the floor, that's cool. If it's lifted, that's fine. Right arm, reach it out.

Now keep this twist. Take the left hand and reach all the way over to the right palm, almost like you're trying to pancake the hands together. Now trace a line or a big half circle with your left fingertips all the way as far back behind you and over to the other side. So that's the half circle. Now continue the circle by reaching your fingertips toward your butt and then all the way to that hand again.

So what it is, is we're looking for the spinal twist which you're in and some shoulder space. Some shoulder mobility, right? So you can bend that left arm, whatever natural sort of like within this shape, whatever feels most appropriate that kind of wakes up that left shoulder. All right. One more circle.

Good. Bring that left arm back over to the left, exit the twist, shift your weight, your body back to the center and then over to the right now. Left leg extends out, right knee draws into the body. Use your left hand on that right thigh and now take it with an exhale. Breathe in here.

Use the exhale to pull the belly in a little bit and twist as far as it's necessary for you to the left. Gazing point can stay straight up. So before you start the shoulder work, get the twist that may or may not feel awesome. For me, it feels pretty good. And it's totally natural to get that little spine release, that snap, crackle, pop kind of a thing.

All right. Now left hand, wing it out, right hand, reach it over and now circle, big circular motion as much as you can. So really it's just about bringing a little bit of life into the shoulder region. Even the chest, upper back, like three, four, maybe even five circles, depending on how fast you're going. You don't have to keep up with me or go at my pace, good circular motion through the shoulder while twisting.

The first time I ever did this, I was like, wow, I don't know if that's the way it feels for you, but with practice you make it that well. All right, finish off the twist, come back to center, shift your low back and your butt to the center of your mat, one more knee squeeze, right? So stretch the back of your neck, hug the knees in, the low back may or may not lift up off the mat, doesn't matter, good. Bring your feet down to the mat. Go ahead and draw the knees, the feet up off the mat, the knees into your body.

Take hold of your, like if you take your hands on the inside of your thigh, reach toward the shins, okay, just below the knees and then let those knees draw out, right? So you might feel some sensation on the inner thighs groin, okay? This to me is like level, not even a level, but like the first stage of happy baby, just kind of waking up inner thighs. So that's where we're working into is happy baby. So if right now your hips are super tight, stay right here, no big deal, it's perfect.

If you want to grow it, you can start to slide your hands up to your ankles, forearms pressing into your calves or shins and your knees to keep those knees wide and start to bring your feet up over your knees, explore that sensation. Again, this is like starting your day, so be kind to your body. As it takes a little while, start to wake up, right? That's the purpose of this. Now this is a good hold or you can slide your hands up to the outer edges of your feet, even grab hold of your big toes.

All right, so knees out wide, feet are flexed, that helps kind of protect the knee a little bit. So what happens, right, is we reach up and then we, with our body and we put our head back down, but make sure you lengthen the back of your neck and try to get super long in your spine. Okay, once you land in the shape, begin to explore. You can straighten one leg if you'd like, straighten the other, and what might be really helpful is if you pause in happy baby, breathe in, and as you exhale, right, hamstrings might be tight, so you want to send an exhale into the movement, right? Just like you did with that windshield wiper.

So breathe in, bending both legs, breathe out, straighten your left or your right. Straighten both if that's of interest to you. Take the feet out really wide, good. Bring it back to more of a neutral, happy baby, and maybe we'll come out slow, slide the hands down to the ankles, the shins, back down to the knees, and what's nice about this, what I like, is that my hands are like levers or levers, and it's no effort at all, and I'm supporting the legs with this passive hip opener. All right, enough of that pose, move on, bridge pose, bring your feet down, breathe in, breathe out.

All right, so your hands are palms facing down, feet are below the knees, somewhere below the knees, simultaneously lift your hips up as high as you can, reaching your fingertips like you're kind of tracing your fingertips up toward the ceiling and all the way back behind you with your palms facing up. So palms are up in the full expression of bridge, right, arms are reaching back, palms facing up. Breathe in here, and exhale, lower down, lower the low back all the way down, palms facing down. Inhale, lift the hips, reach up all the way back, and then exhale, lower down. Three more.

Breathe in, and breathe out, inhale, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, open up the chest, open up the thighs, the hip flexors, and exhale, come all the way down. I think we've got one more. Breathe in, hips up, arms up and back, open yourself up to the day. This is a perfect opportunity actually, bridge pose. Pause here, breathe in, and now exhale, lower all the way down.

Hug your knees into your chest, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. So this is basically child's pose on your back, if you want to deepen it, reach up, hold on to opposite wrists, or maybe even like get really tight into a little bit of a ball here, hold on to opposite elbows, forehead in the direction of your knees. Good, release, shift over to the left, and roll over onto your right for two breaths. So your knees are bent, and you're resting your head on your right arm. Why?

Because it's comfortable, and it feels good. I think. All right, one more breath here, breathe in. Maybe use the exhale to press the left hand down and push yourself all the way up to sit. Great, good job so far.

Not a bad way to start the day, right? Okay, from here, child's pose. So come on to your hands and knees. I like in the very beginning, the first time I do child's pose, the knees are wide, big toes might touch, reach the seat back, back toward the heels. If you're a little tight in the hips, pause, pause in that resistance, maybe send an exhale into that resistance, right, that tight space.

The inclination I think is to hold the breath. So it actually might feel good to do that a few times, you know? So do that on your own if you'd like, but take a moment, right? Build the shape. What is the best possible shape for you right now?

I'm going to bring my forehead all the way down to the mat. If you find that your forehead's hovering, stack your fists or your forearms or grab a pillow, a block, make it comfortable. And once you land in child's pose, maybe there's some shifting from side to side, right? So if you shift your hips to the right and to the left, you might feel a little extra sensation there, right? So it's just like a little blood flow and life into these potentially tender areas of your body.

Stretch it all the way out, like really push your hips as far back as you can and walk your fingertips as far forward as you can, maybe even claw, tent or claw your fingers, claw 10, forward, lifting your forearms, your elbows, maybe even draw your shoulders up onto your back so now your back is engaged. I mean, if this were your only, the only pose you did in the morning, I think it'd be a massive success. So come forward into tabletop. So hands and knees, maybe instead of having the hands directly under the shoulders, try bringing your hands maybe a half inch forward. I find that feels pretty good for a lot of people.

Okay. Spread your fingers nice and wide. Cat cow. So you can have your toes curled or uncurled, tucked or untucked. Drop the belly a lot and even let the shoulder blades, don't bend the arms, but draw the shoulder blades toward one another and get loose on the neck for a moment.

So your belly, like zero core, your butt is super high. So there's this arched back shoulder blades toward one another, right? So that's maybe if you even look forward, so it's just like really lazy cow pose. And on the exhalation, begin to engage your belly, your core, pull the low belly up and in and push into the center of your palms so that your shoulder blades separate, draw your tailbone down and get as like flexed and arched in the opposite way, right? As you can, maybe even look toward your thighs, push, push, push, good.

Four rounds, inhale, cow pose, like as lazy as you can. Breathe in, breathe out a little more effort, right? Core engaged. Low belly pulls in. Pelvis goes into that posterior tilt, tucking the tailbone a bit, shoulder blades super stretched out.

Good. Three more. Breathe in and breathe out. This is one of the better postures, two postures to link together to really get a sense of how to move with the full inhalation into cow and a full exhalation into cat. I think we've got one more.

Breathe in and breathe out. Back into a flat back, walk your left hand forward a little bit, reach the right arm out, maybe even lift up, get a little like upper body rotation. And then on the exhale, weave that right hand, thread the needle. So reach it under the left forearm, as far over to the left as you can. Adjust your left hand if need be, try to keep your hips level as well, and then that right shoulder potentially lands on the mat and your head as well.

So the sensation, the stretch, right, the purpose behind this, you might feel some opening in your upper right back. So a little bit of a twist, your shoulder. I'm even going to grab hold of that mat, it gives me a little bit more leverage to really like lean into this. So right now my left hip is wanting to come forward. I want to pull it back so that I really have my low back and spine as neutral as possible.

Okay, good. Come on out, maybe take a cat cow, breathe in, never a bad idea. Back into neutral, position your right hand, right, create some space and leverage. Left arm reaches up, breathe in, and then exhale, weave it as far over as you can. You can get a kind of like out of whack for a moment with your hips, but then bring that left shoulder down as far as you can, your head down.

I'm going to hold onto that mat again. Sometimes we get so deep into the pose and we're so focused that the breath sort of disappears. So in this posture here, can you find a few very conscious inhalations and exhalations? Okay, come on out. Okay, now from here, take the hands, walk them forward, keep your hips directly above your knees, walk your hands as far forward as you can with the intention of getting your chin and chest down, not on, I'm not going to get my chest, no way, my chin, yes, but the main focus here is maybe a little like lengthening of the spine, shoulder stretch.

Come back out, position yourself for downward dog. So again, it starts from the ground up, you got to get those hands evenly pressed, curl your toes under, lift your knees and then if you bring your butt back towards your heels, this will bring your chest or your belly in the direction of your thighs, maybe working toward lengthening your spine and then begin to lift, maybe straighten one leg, then the other, pedaling it out. So pedaling it out, right? If you're not looking, what it might look like or feel like is you bending one leg while you straighten the opposite and press the opposite heel as far toward the ground as you can. You may even sink your breath, right?

So the inhalation is in the middle, right? So there's no stretch happening as far as like both legs are bent, breathe in, exhale one heel toward the floor, straight leg, good, and then exhalation straightens the opposite leg, going to walk up to the front of the mat, from here, make any adjustments you might need to make, we're going to lift halfway. So land with your knees bent, lengthen the back of your neck, slide your fingertips or your palms up to your shins just below your knees, this will give you a little leverage to be able to lift your chest away from your thighs. In fact, with this one, bend your knees even more, push the palms, the heels of your palms into your hip creases, so much that you actually like feel like you're pressing onto your bones like push your hips back, feel for lengthening your spine, reach, keep the hips back like you're tractioning right through the top of your head, breathe in and exhale, reach forward to come down, once you just take hold of opposite elbows, so in this forward bend you can hold on to your opposite elbows, just it kind of adds a little bit more weight, you can play with straightening one leg just like we did in downward dog, so if you start with your knees bent, take a breath, as you exhale straighten one leg, you don't have to lock it out but just work towards straightening one leg, and then you bend that one leg on the breath in and exhale straighten the other one. Both knees bent, arms super lazy, head lazy, shoulder lazy, see what it feels like for you to bend your knees kind of a lot, draw your tailbone down and then the idea is to roll up, keep tucking the tailbone down, pull the belly in, shoulders, it's almost like you're reluctantly coming up, so slow, take a couple of neck rolls, okay, come back to a neutral position, inhale, circle the arms up, like take a big, like I'm gonna start my day breath, reach up, take hold, like take your right hand on your left wrist, draw the tailbone down, pull those low ribs in a little bit and then take a side bend over to the right, so really pull up through the left side but keep equal distance in both side bodies if that makes sense, good, inhale back up to center, switch, left hand holding on to the right wrist, reach up and send it over laterally, so there's this big side bend, your spine is meant to move in this lateral position, so let's move it, open up, open up, open up, good, big breath, you really like come up with the inhalation just like we did when we were lying on our back, let's get as tall and stretched out as we can, maybe even if you draw your tailbone down, right, so hips forward like a baby back bend, just opening up the chest, maybe even your heart, like big stretch, inhale here and then exhale, draw those palms back to your heart, back to your chest, take one more breath together here, breathe in, exhale, great, that's it, have a great day, thank you for practicing with me, I'll see you next time.