Lying-Down Morning Yoga (Rohini)

Namaste Yogis and welcome back! This is the last episode of our morning yoga, and I have truly saved the best for last. I know early in the morning you're mostly lying down in bed, so I have a sequence for you that's mostly lying down. You don't have to do very much else, but it will still give you all the things — the energy, the flexibility, and the strength you need for the rest of your day. So if you are on your bed, you can continue lying down there, but if not, just put your mat down and we will begin.

So let's start by lying down, so just come to lying down. Just adjust your hair, make sure everything is comfortable, and once you do, the first thing is we want to lengthen the body. So take your hands parallel to the ears, pointing backwards. Then I want you to point your toes like you're a ballerina lying down. So stretch your hands out. Lift your ribs up to the sky, pushing up and lengthening, squeezing the shoulders and the hips into the floor. Stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. And relax.

Once you're here, I want you to find a little seat with your body. So you're going to move your legs outside the mat, cross them so that they don't spread apart. And then lift the shoulders, move them a little bit sideways, and reach with your hands. Now what's really important is you want to do this: keep the shoulders and the hip joints glued to the floor, but just the hands and the legs are reaching. So you're forming this really nice C shape with your body, and the whole right side of yourself is getting really nice and stretched. You can also choose to extend through the right fingertips, just stretching, opening up all the tension that may have crept in as you slept last night, for another three. Reach just a little bit more, as much as possible, to keep you consciously reaching with the right fingers. For one, slowly come back to the center. Take a second to notice how long your right side feels — I feel it on mine. So let's get a stretch and even it out on this side.

So remember, both legs going across, you can create an X with your feet. Then you want to lift the shoulders, wiggle it over and across, forming an inverted C shape. Consciously reach with the left fingertips, just reaching, stretching, forming this nice beautiful C shape with your body, extending out. Remember, don't let the hips come off the floor even a little — imagine the shoulder joint and the hip joint are both glued to the floor. So reach, reach, reach for another three. A few more seconds. I'm allowing myself to feel the stretch on the left ribs, keep rolling my hip joints down, continuing to extend through the fingertips. One last breath here, opening, stretching. And for one — feels really good.

Really come back to the center now, and pull both your legs into your chest. Place your hands on the knees and draw circles. What this does is, if there's any pain in your lower back, it's massaging and relaxing it out. Just allow yourself to roll from side to side, noticing where tension is living for you and releasing it out by counting.

We're going to work into the side hips. So hug the right knee in, keeping the left leg straight and extended out. The easiest thing is to just stay here, but it's morning, so you want to break through the tension, right? So you want to pull the knee in just a little bit closer than usual — don't just stop here, you want to pull a little bit deeper. Use the strength of your hands to pull the knee in. And when you do this, sometimes this left leg will want to bend — try and keep it active, with the toes pointing up. Just massaging the thighs against the belly organs for another two. Last little breath here as you pull one inch closer. And for one, now take the left hand onto that knee and just allow yourself to twist, with your eyes on the right hand.

Now to get the knee to the floor, we'll kind of twist like this and lift the shoulder, but please don't — keep your right shoulder on the floor. Just allow the knee to go down as much as possible. You can see there's a fair bit of gap for me, because it's early in the morning, the muscles need to really open up. The joints need to open up, and this will slowly, with time, open up more — for another two. Allow yourself to notice what's going on in your own back. That's it, breathe. Good. And for one, slowly come back.

Same thing on the opposite side, so hips back to the middle. Remember, left knee, a lot higher than usual, right leg active, toes up. Squeeze and pull as much as we can for three, breathing, relaxing our shoulders for two. Last little breath — this is great even for digestion, by the way. It helps you eliminate anything unnecessary that's stuck in your body. And for one, right hand on the knee, same thing, taking it across. Remember, left shoulder stays on the floor, and you're just twisting from the hips. Allowing yourself to go a little bit deeper for another three. Remember, don't sacrifice the shoulder — keep it glued as you twist and open, allowing the back and the hips to open as much as possible. Last little breath here as you twist and release, allowing the knee to come down one inch more. And for one, slowly come back to the center.

Once you do, keep both your knees bent, make sure the hips sit in the middle, and your fingertips are touching the heels. We're going to work into the abdomen, okay? What that means is, on the inhale, I want you to lift the hips up, puff your belly out like you ate a big balloon, and then on the exhale, engage your core and flatten it down as you slowly, slowly, slowly come down. We're going to do it four more times, so ready? Inhale, belly up, up, up, up, up. And exhale, tighten your belly muscles as you slowly, slowly, slowly come down. Ready? Three more like that, when you're ready. Inhale, puffing the belly, squeezing the thighs, activating all over the lower body. And exhale, tighten the belly muscles as you slowly, slowly, slowly come down. Remember, no arch, yeah? Two more like that. Inhale, pushing the hips up, sky high, seeing if you can lift just a bit more. And on the exhale, slowly lower it down, activating the muscles as you rest the spine back. One last time, when you're ready. Inhale, lifting, lifting, lifting. And exhale, tightening the core and slowly releasing it back down to the earth.

Once the back is flat, slowly lift the head and shoulders, double-checking your belly is flat, keeping the hands by the side, extending one leg and the other leg, and holding a low boat, or a low Navasana. So three, shoulders relax, two, one. Let's just slowly lift yourself back up into a high Navasana — toes are up, in line with the knees, shoulders are up high, belly is full, as you hold. Three, two, one.

Cross your legs into a seat, inhale, reaching your hands up to the sky. And on the exhale, just take a nice little twist as you peel the shoulders open. Make sure the back elbow is not bending — straighten it out, bringing the palms flat and looking over. Same thing on the other side, so when you're ready: inhale, reach your hands to the sky, and on the exhale, just twist, looking in the opposite direction. Peel the shoulder open, spiraling and wringing through the belly and the back body for another two. One, slowly coming back to the center and putting a smile back on.

Well done, guys, that was really good work. What we worked into is our core and the side body, all of which we tend to forget about when we sleep. So do these sequences, either in whole or in part, but either way, I promise you, you'll have an amazing moment. Thank you so much for practicing with me.

Namaste.