Get Up and Go

Welcome to Get Up and Go. This will be about a 15 to 30 minute morning practice that is meant to wake up your mind and your body, your spirit, and pretty much get you out of the door and moving. So whether it's first thing in the morning or even if you need to pick me up in the afternoon or even on your way at night when you're going out, this will get you up and moving. So let's go ahead and get started. Right onto our shins. A blanket may be nice to place out in front of you to pad up your knees especially if they're sensitive. And then you'll come to lean onto your, kneel onto your shins and then we're going to begin to coordinate the rhythm of the breath with the movements of our body right away. So the inhale is going to lift you all the way up. These are called Tibetan Sun Salutes. And then as you exhale, you're going to grab a hold of your elbows and then fold forward over your forearms and bow your head to the ground. So the first couple can be slow. You'll rise up like the sun and then exhale, you'll bow in towards yourself. One more time like that. This can begin to clear out any stagnant energy and then exhale. Inhale and then this time the exhale can get a little bit more powerful. Waking up the energy as you begin to move the body. One more time like that as you breathe in and then breathe out. Slowly rise on up, pause. And then this time as you exhale, you're going to have a seat on your heels and take a gentle twist over to the right. So if your right fingertips don't reach the ground behind you, make sure you have a block handy and then you can begin to twist the spine and look back over your right shoulder. Inhale and rise up and then exhale, take the twist over to the left side. I'm taking a big breath in to lengthen the spine and then exhale to twist right from the navel. And inhale, all ten fingertips back behind you if you can to lift the chest. And then you can exhale to begin to press down into your fingertips, float the hips up and begin to lower your hips down and begin to make your way forward onto your hands and knees. You can move your padding out to the side. Plant your hands right underneath your shoulders, your knees underneath your hips. Take a big breath in to fill up and then tuck your toes under. Begin to lift your knees off of the ground and lengthen your legs into your first downward dog. Pedal out through your feet. Wake up the energy in the legs. Allow the head to release. You can shake it out a little bit. I like to even twist a little bit from side to side, opening up the side of the body a little bit. And then begin to roll forward into a plank pose as you breathe in. As you exhale, lift up the sides of the navel and the ribs into the back body and then lower your knees to the ground followed by your chest and chin. Point your toes, lie down onto your belly and then press down through all ten toes as you begin to lift the chest off the ground into a baby cobra looking up. Exhale back onto your hands and knees. Tuck your toes and pour yourselves back into downward dog. As you breathe in, as I extend your right leg high to the sky, as you exhale, step your foot forward between your hands. You can help along the foot if you need to with your hands. And then soften your back knee to the ground and plant your hands down to the top of the right thigh and begin to round in towards yourself so that you can lengthen the low back a little bit and then breathe your arms up and into the sky. Big breath in and then an exhale to sink down. Frame your right foot with your two hands, tuck your back toes under and then swing the right leg back up and into the sky. This time as you come forward you're going to draw the right knee in towards your nose, stay and pause and then inhale the right leg back up. Exhale the right knee in towards your nose, pause, inhale it back up. One more time to draw the right knee in towards your nose. Feel a little spark up from the belly and then step your right foot right between your hands again. This time taking it into a twist so you can sink down into the left hand. A block can always come underneath your hand if you need and then twist again right from the belly to lift the chest. Take one big breath in, exhale to open up and then release your right hand down. From here you're going to step the left foot in a little bit at first and then see if you can tuck your knee all the way behind the right ankle and then have a seat on the ground. If this is too much you can take your right foot on the inside but then you'll plant the right hand to the floor behind you, lengthen the left arm up and then wrap your left arm around your right leg to begin to twist again looking back behind you. Breathing in and then there's a ringing out of the spine that awakens the energy in your body as you breathe out. As you come on through center both hands to the floor behind you again. This time plant your feet into the ground and then begin to float your hips up into the sky. So you're going to breathe in through your nose but this time stick out your tongue and breathe out through the mouth for lion's breath. Release your hips down, give a hug of your knees in towards your chest. We're going to come right into a soft Navasana. So the knees are nice and soft for this boat pose. Your hands can frame the knees and then if you're ready for it, reach your arms forward. Maybe your legs lengthen for a breath and then cross your ankles. You can roll forward over your shins or swing them out to the side and then make your way back into downward facing dog. We're going to come through another Vinyasa so you can roll forward into a plank pose, knees, chest, chin again or this time you may lower all the way down to the ground in one piece. Point your toes. It can be a baby, maybe a little higher cobra and then exhale back onto your hands and knees and pour yourselves into downward facing dog. Inhale your left leg high to the sky. As you exhale, swing it forward between your hands. Soften the back knee down for crescent lunge. You'll breathe your arms up to the sky and then exhale to sink down and find a little back bend. Frame your left foot, tuck your right toes under and swing your leg up to the sky and a couple times to stoke the fire. So you'll climb and knee to nose. Inhale up, exhale forward. Inhale up, exhale forward and then right into the twist as the left foot comes down. Peel your chest open, allowing the hips to sink as you expand through the chest. Then release your left hand down. You can walk your left toes in a little bit towards center so that you can tuck the right knee behind the left ankle. Left hand to the floor behind you. Breathe your right arm up to the sky and then hug your knee in towards your chest and begin to revolve and twist over your left shoulder. So you'll sit up tall and breathe in and then using that exhale, that cleansing breath to twist you a little bit deeper. Both hands behind you, feet in front of you and let's go forward, lift your hips up, stick out your tongue and it's lion's breath. Lower your hips down for boat pose so the knees can come in and then again you can lengthen your legs. Maybe balance for a moment and then cross your ankles and make your way back into downward dog. And take a breath in and a breath out. From here begin to walk your feet forward towards the top of your mat. As you make your way forward, your feet just about hip width apart, you can begin to bend your knees, lengthen your spine, your hands can slide up your shins as you breathe in and then exhale to fold in towards yourself. From here begin to reach down into your feet, circle the arms all the way up as you rise and shine and then slide the hands into your heart. Giving gratitude for this day and then release your arms by your side. And then if you have two blocks it might be a good idea to grab them and maybe place one at the top of your mat somewhere near you and then the other one on the other side so that they're there for you to reach if you need here in your practice. You're going to come back into tadasana, mountain pose right into the center of your mat. Tadasana is so great because it's always a way of celebrating yourself. It's great. Ta-da, here I am, world, watch out. And then with your hands back into your heart you can find a little bounce. We're going to do a bit of a yogi's jumping jag so you can find that little rhythm and bounce and then on your next exhale, hop your feet out to the side. We could do that a couple times. From here you're going to begin to lift up your right foot so that you can swivel onto your right heel and turn your right leg out and you want the rotation to really come from the hip joint. So as I lift up my foot I can begin to find the opening of the right hip and then the left hip does kind of soften forward a little bit and then place the ball of the right foot down mindfully. You can reach your arms back out to the side and take a big breath in and then reach all the way forward the right hip. You can draw back a little bit so that there's a great reaching and lengthening and this is where you may want to use your block to lift the ground up to meet you. I like to place it even high up especially first thing in the morning so that you want to press down into the ground and from that rooting down there's this great lifting up. You're going to take about three breaths here and take a big inhale and then exhale. Every time you breathe out you do want to draw the ribs in a tiny bit to awaken the back body. Your gaze can lift up towards the sky so that you're really extending upward as well as pressing down and take one more big breath in and exhale all the way out into your feet. At this time as you breathe in you're going to rise back up and then even tip all the way backwards so you're reversing your triangle for a moment opening up the right side of the waist and then from here you can begin to bend into the right knee. Come through center for warrior two and you'll breathe in and then breathe out. So the focus here is looking out past the right fingertips and really sinking down into the ground as the energy lifts up so that there's this dual action of the tailbone sinking down and the pelvis and the navel lifting up at the same time. I've been holding it for a couple moments you're going to feel some fire, you're going to feel the legs waking up, maybe even a little shaken and waking. One more big breath in, exhale completely, even go a little deeper and then straighten the legs parallel the toes. Reach your arms high and then take it over to the other side. So lift your left leg up, swivel on the heel, turn your left leg all the way out and soften the right hip and even the right toes in as you stretch the ball of the foot out and then reach all the way forward with your left hand and here's your block on the other side as you placed your left hand down. A tiny micro bend into the left knee or into the knees at any time is a great idea especially if you tend to hyperextend like I do so that you can begin to draw the thighs actively around the thigh bones. And then first you can take the gaze towards the earth, press down into your feet and your hands and then the energy begins to rise up so that there's two gravitational forces when sinking into the earth and then the other one expanding upward. And then a few breaths, inhaling, knowing that the pose isn't static and then you're exhaling, breathing in and then breathing out back into your feet from the belly to the back body. One more big breath in, exhaling all the way out and then using the momentum to rise back up, finding a reverse triangle to open up the left side of the body and then keep the right leg active as you begin to bend the left knee, guiding it towards the pinky toe side of the foot so that you can come into warrior two extending back as much as you're reaching forward, looking out at the horizon and this great visual of a surfer. We can't stop the waves we're told but we can learn how to ride them. So find the breath and breathe in, finding some softness and then exhale into the great strength. Again inhaling, softening your face and your eyes as you sink down into the strength of your legs. One more breath in, exhale completely and then rise back up. Big inhale, there's that softening of the knees, you can hop your feet up, back to the front of your mat, you can move your props out to the side. Find your tadasana, arms by your side, you'll feel lots of energy awake and even your heartbeat. From here we're going to sink our way back into ukkatasana, our powerful pose. So I like to do it in one breath so that the hips bend as the arms reach up, you're breathing all the way in and then exhale to sink a little bit deeper. So the exhale can begin to draw the tailbone in as you extend the arms up so that there's this great stretch towards the light, great energetic extension sometimes even called thunderbolts. There's this powerful strike of energy to the ground. Again you'll find lots of heat and energy moving inside of the body, see if you can sink into it and gather it in and then begin to rise on up and release your arms by your sides. One more time bend your knees and sink back into your ukkatasana and then this time slide the hands into your heart and we're going to take it into a twist. So you do want to begin to have the prayer, dedicate and move the twist right from your navel center so that you're hooking your left elbow to the outside of the right knee. See if you can draw the left knee back and the left hip back to join the right and then a little resistance of the elbow to the outer edge of the right knee as you begin to twist a little bit deeper into the pose. Breathing in and then breathing out. Again inhaling you may loosen it a little bit and then breathe out to twist a little bit deeper. Inhale and rise on up and again you can lengthen the legs, release between sides, sinking back in like a moving meditation and then twisting over to the left this time. So hook the elbow to the outer edge of the left knee, move from the belly so that the thumbs sink to the center of your chest and then find that equanimity in the legs so that you can draw the right hip back and then twist from the belly as you look up. Breathing in and then breathing out. Inhaling, softening a little bit to let the breath in so you can use the power of the exhale to twist. One more big breath in and you'll rise up to stand and then release your arms by your sides. Last time into your katasana sinking down maybe a little bit deeper this time and then find your hands to the ground a little bit further back and you're going to release your sitting bones to the ground again. So we're going to meet that Navasana pose again, boat pose. So a boat keeps this nice buoyancy no matter what is happening, no matter what the waves of the ocean is doing there. The same way we can keep our energy nice and lifted as the arms come forward and then from here you're going to lower down into Ardhanavasana or half a boat a couple of inches off the ground and then you're going to inhale, rise up and then again exhale lower all the way down and then rise and shine a couple more times like that lowering hovering and then lift yourselves back up. Last time like that, lowering, hold arms can come by your side and then drop down. You can move everything. This is even before you've had your first cup of coffee. Feel the energy moving through the body. So take a deep breath in, exhale everything out and then rise on up to sit to lower back down onto your back but this time begin to slide your heels in towards your hips and you can also reach for a block to place it by you. We're going to take it into a nice supported and supine back bend. So root down through the inner edges of your feet and then begin to float your hips up into a half wheel or bridge pose. You can begin to snuggle the shoulders a little bit underneath, waddle them so that the chest can lift up but root down through the inner edges of the feet and this time you're awakening the back of the body so you'll definitely feel your glutes here engaged, lifting up and strengthening the back as we open up the front of the body and this is where if it's a little bit too much in the lower back, you can begin to place a block here underneath your sacrum and then your arms can come by your sides to take a few breaths, allowing the chest to open, your lungs to expand, your heart to be free, taking a few breaths. If you've been up in the more active variation then you can lower down and then rise back up and take one more breath in and then you can move the block from underneath you, release your hips and keep the feet where they are and you're going to cross the right ankle on top of your left knee, again another passive pose here, a hip opener. So this is called a supine pigeon, it can begin to press a little bit into the top of the right foot so that the hip actually opens but allowing the back to release and even twist a little bit from side to side and then begin to hug your left knee in towards your chest so that you can take a breath in, you can take a breath out to hug the knee in a little bit and then again release a tiny bit and then breathe out to hug the knee in. One more time like that, breathing in. This time as you breathe out you can begin to lengthen the left leg and even walk your hands down your shin, you can reach for a belt if you have one nearby, you can strap it around your foot and begin to lift yourself up, you can rock a little bit forwards and backwards even onto shoulders and then begin to release down, hugging the knees in towards your chest and release the right foot down and cross your left ankle on top of the right knee, again just take a moment to let the hip release, rock a little bit from side to side and then you can begin to draw the right knee in, waking up the hip joint, wrap your arms around your right knee and every time you exhale hug the knee in towards your chest a little bit, breathing in to release, exhale to draw the shin a little bit closer in towards your chest, one more time like that, breathing in and then you can begin to lengthen the right leg up, another gentle walk up your leg towards your ankle and you can lift yourself up, find a little bit of a rock onto the spine and then hug your knees in towards your chest and lengthen your legs out long for Shavasana, you can slide your shoulders underneath you, lift into the hips, release your legs down, take a few moments to really bask in your own light, own warmth, there's radiant energy like the sun.

So, let's start with Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, Shavasana, and slowly begin to bring your awareness back to your breath and then this glorious glow, the sun rising, coming from inside rather than outside, ready to fill the world, light, warm and energy, move your fingers and toes, stretch your arms over you, you can move a little from side to side, give a big hug of your knees in towards your chest and then rock on up to sit, so we're going to end with a short meditation on our way into our day or wherever you're headed, so sitting cross-legged onto some padding, and again just a simple Buddha's peaceful abiding meditation, so in Tibetan Buddhism the state of awakening is called the Great Eastern Sun, so the sun rises in the east, it's known as this glorious state of a sun rising, we can begin to rest in, the conscious intention myself of how I want to abide in the world, with your hands simply on your knees and I like to slide them back a little bit which naturally allows my heart to rise like that great sun, chin can gently drop down so the back of your neck is long, you begin to find your breath, meeting a slight natural smile softens on your face, an expression of inner peace and external harmony with the world, with who you are, your eyes gently open gazing at the earth warmly again like the sun gazing down on all, not just the people we like, the sun shines on everyone I'll end with a short poem by the great Sufi saint Hafez that says, even after all this time the sun doesn't say to the earth, hey you owe me, look what happens, the love like that, it lights up the whole world, let's take a deep breath in, bow down to the light within one another, namaste.