James @ Daily Flow: Hello friends. Thanks for downloading the audio version of today's 10 minute mornings practice. The YouTube video is linked in the show notes. And if you're staying with just the audio, don't worry about doing it right. Just move and breathe in a way that feels honest. That's enough.

James: In 10 minutes of yoga, you'll stretch, energize, ground, and be prepared to take whatever happens calmly and with ease. Hello, friends, welcome to your Daily Flow 10-Minute Mornings Yoga Practice. My name is James. Come to sit on your mat. Or your floor if you're not using a mat. It's alright. Separate the fleshy part of your glutes away from your sit bones and gives your give your legs a little shake. I'm gonna bend my knees quite a bit here and flex my feet. your arms overhead, pressing down through the seat, length and inhale and exhale. Send your heart forward. And I'm trying to find my belly connected to my thighs. And then when it is, I'm gonna let myself drain. That's why we bend the knees, because we're not trying to do some crazy big hamstring thing just yet. Instead, just feel the breath moving in your body. If you showed up because you want athletic or energizing, we'll get there. But first we have to warm up that spine. So inhale into your back body. Exhale. See if you can peel the chest a little closer. Inhale, lift your heart. I'm gonna send my heels another inch out. Exhale, pull your chest forward and fold. We're looking for pleasant stretch, not strain. But but you feel something. There's a sensation. So now depending on how you're feeling here, you might take the heels a little further out. Inhale, exhale, fold a little more deeply. And then walk yourself up to sit. Step your right foot in. Opening the knee out to the side. Feel a gentle, use the muscles of the leg to gently press down. And then sit up tall and turn your chest towards the pinky toe of the left foot. Float the right arm and then send that right arm forward, forward, forward, and let it fall where it falls. For some folks, you might be very upright. For others, you might be holding the foot, or I'm going to try for the pinky side of the foot. My left hand is behind me, giving a little prop, and there's still a bend in my left knee. I don't know if you can see that. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, lift your chest look forward. Exhale, use your left hand to help guide your heart further forward. Again, I feel a stretch of my hamstring, but it's not strained. I'm not forcing anything. So we will all stop wherever we stop. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. And then coming to sit up. Cross the right ankle, the left knee, make a figure four. Step the left foot now flat on the floor. And again, depending on how your right outer thigh feels, that left foot might be closer or further away than mine. Flex the right foot. That chest is lifting up. I feel a big stretch in the outside of my right thigh. Inhale here. Exhale. This time press down on the left foot. Lift the hips off the mat. You can keep the chin tucked or let the head fall back. Inhale. Exhale. Lower down. Set the hips between the hands. Untangle the legs. Give them a little shake. Peel the fleshy part of glutes away from the seat. Step the left foot in and then opening out to the side again. I'm not just sitting setting it there. I'm also using the muscles of the leg to help ground it down. A little bend to my right knee, right foot flexed, left foot, left arm to the ceiling. Reach that left arm forward, forward, and see if it finds the pinky side of the right foot. Right hand behind, lengthen the spine. Inhale, exhale, fold the chin to shin. Inhale, lift the heart again, still a little bend of my right knee. Exhale, fold. That little bend helps protect the insertion point, the where the connective tissue of the hamstring meets the pelvis. And we don't want any strain there, because if that gets any little tears or inflammation, it takes a while for it to heal. So we just want the stretch in the muscle. One more breath. Inhale. Exhale. Excuse me. Sit up. First thing in the morning, I took a deep breath. Come to all fours. Find a cow pose. Inhale. Pull the heart forward. Tuck the toes. Exhale. Untuck the toes and round your spine. Do that again. Inhale. I forgot to do figure four on the other side. I knew there was something, my cough distracted me. So let's go ahead and get that. Cross your shins, have a seat. Cross the left ankle at the right knee and then step the right foot in. Ground your palms. Pressing down in your finger pads and knuckles. Lift the heart. First, you're looking for the stretch in the outside of the left thigh, that left I T band. And then press down in the right heel. Lift the hips up. And keep the chin tucked. You can let the head fall back. Inhale. Exhale, lower down. Now cross your shins. And come all the way to all fours. We'll just move on from here. Extend your right arm forward, your left foot back. Get nice and long. Look at your right thumb. Now bend your left knee, flex your left foot to the ceiling, swim that right hand back, see if the right hand finds the left ankle. And then lift up. So this is essentially dancer pose, which we're gonna do later. So feel that pulling forward of the chest, that resistance with the leg. Inhale. Exhale, step back. Tuck those left toes and then lift the right leg up and back down. Dog split. Inhale. Exhale, right foot outside the right hand. Lizard lunge, pull the heart forward, sink the hips, release that left knee down onto the mat. Untuck the left toes. And then right hand inside the right thigh. I'm gonna peel that open and look up over my right shoulder. Lengthening. So I'm sending that leg forward and away as I lean back. Feels in like a nice stretch to the hip space. Inhale. Actually, I'll go ahead release all of that. Come back to all fours. I'm gonna turn my hands over, backs of the hands on the mat, and just make some circles here. We've already been on the wrist a little bit, so this will give them a little bit of love. And come back to all fours. Extend your left arm forward, float your right foot back. Nice and long. Flex the right foot to the ceiling, left hand swims back. If it feels like you can't reach for that ankle, don't contort your spine to find it. Instead, you can keep the left hand on the floor and just flex the right foot to the ceiling. Keep the heart pulling forward. Inhale. Exhale, step the right foot straight back. Set the left hand down. Tuck those right toes and then down dog split the left leg. Big stretch here. Inhale. Exhale, left foot outside the left hand. Pull the heart forward. Release the right knee down. Untuck the right toes, left hand inside the left thigh, peel that open. Anytime you want to do more advanced balances or stretches, you start with the small stuff, always. So these little things aren't glamorous, but our practices here aren't about being exciting or doing fancy things necessarily. They're just about grounding our day with a little yoga and some intention. And then come back to all fours. Find your fingers spread wide, a little grip of the mat, tuck your toes downward facing Dog. Lengthening through the spine. Lift your right leg high to sky down, dog split. And then step the right foot in between the hands. Come up to a high lunge. So the back heel is lifted, right knee deeply bent, float the arms. Feel the energy in the big toe side of the right foot in particular. Really ground down there. I'm gonna come all the way to stand and bring my left knee up with me into a balance. Right hand to the outside of the left thigh. Left arm to the wall behind you. Maybe straighten the left leg, maybe not. Take a breath. Now releasing that, I'm gonna take my left foot behind me and see if I can catch it with my right hand, left arm to the ceiling, still firm on the instep of that left foot. Now maybe you stay here in a quad stretch. I was just sort of flaring out my ribs, so I want to get nice and tall and then send the heel back, the head back. The left hand back. And maybe that pulling back helps go into a dancer pose. Inhale. Exhale. Release it. Warrior one, step the left foot back. How'd you do? Warrior two. Straighten the right leg, triangle pose, left hip back, right arm forward and down. Left arm to the ceiling. Maybe look up with the left thumb. Inhale. Exhale. Back to warrior two. Cartwheel hands down to frame that right foot. Step back. Take a vinyasa. I'm gonna take knees, chest chin. Cobra pose. Downward facing dog. And breathe. Feel the length of your waist. Feel the softening of your breath. Energy in the finger pads and knuckles. Down dog, split the left leg. Step the left foot between the hands. If you do this, really round your spine so you make space for the left knee. Make space for the left foot. Come up to your high lunge. Energy in the ball of the right foot. And that little bit of energy actually makes a nice stretch in that right quad. Look up. Now as you come forward, shift your weight. Right knee comes up. Left hand takes the outside of the right thigh. Right hand goes to the wall behind. Maybe you stay right here. Straighten the right leg. Maybe. Take a breath. And now as you release with that left hand, take the left hand behind you. Catch the right foot. Right hand overhead. My pinky fingers under my right thumb, everything goes behind you. A lot of times people look down at the floor in this shape, which makes balance a little easier, maybe, but it means you're losing your back bend when you do that. Release the foot, big step back, warrior one. exhale, warrior two. Inhale, lengthen the left leg. Exhale, triangle fourth. Look up for that right thumb. Inhale. Exhale, more warrior two. Cartwheel, hands down. Step back. Take your flow. You can take Chaturanga if you'd like. You can take up dog or cobra. Then let's come to a child's pose. Send your hips to your heels. You can stay here. You can have a little shavasana pause if you'd like. Or come to a seat. I'm grabbing the cards. Give them a little shuffle. Just looking for a little inspiration to set some intention or just to give ourselves something to meditate with or to come back to during the day. I put these as a little note in my phone sometimes and then look back and see what comes up. Training. The pose on the card is a plank. It says training, settle the fluctuations of the mind with practice and detachment. Fluctuations of the mind, those old fluctuations of the mind, we're trying to settle them always. If you've ever held a plank for longer than is comfortable, whether that's five seconds or two minutes, and you start to feel that shake, what almost everyone does is they start to grit their teeth and they bear down and they get rigid in their bodies. And it makes it so much more work. If however You hold a plank, or any shape, really. We hold so many poses in yoga, but something that feels challenging. So you're holding your plank, and if you focus on relaxing your eyes, relaxing your jaw, softening your breath, and energizing only where you need it. And the harder the work gets, the harder it feels to hold, the more you relax, you'll carve out a few extra seconds in that plank, which over time Those extra seconds add up a lot. So what are you doing when you do that? You're calming your mind, you're calming your body, you're staying present with where your attention is needed, not gritting down and just just getting through. You're settling the fluctuations of the mind. You're not worried about, I have to hold it for a certain amount of time. You're just staying in it for as long as you can. Detachment. Not that we don't want amazing results, but that the purpose, the point of practice is not the result. The point of practice is the practice. The light that is in me bows to, honors and is so happy to share my practice with you. Namaste. Thank you as always for your time, for your gameness, for showing up here on the mat. Ask questions if you have them in the comments. Let me hear from you, rate, review, whatever, wherever you're listening to things and watching things. It makes all the difference, not just algorithmically, but it lets me know. that you're out there and it it makes a big deal deal. It's a big deal to me. Have a great day. Namaste.

James @ Daily Flow: a follow or review goes a long way. And of course, you're always welcome to practice live with me on YouTube, 8 a.m. weekdays.