11 Mar morning yoga routine – salute to the sun
The house that I live in is the most incredible place in the world, it is true. To open my eyes to the morning! If it is not the birds singing, or the gorgeous pink, orange, or red sunrise over the sea, it is a little noddy plane that takes off at 6.30 am every morning. Mostly a glorious way to start the day. Would you like to learn a salute to the sun?
happy days 🙂
I want to take advantage of this and develop a wonderful morning routine, that brings the spirit of integration, mindfulness and energy to the day.
Studying yoga
I have been studiously reading my Body Breath and Mind – Yoga book, which is very gentle and careful about finding the right pathway to reintegration, and about learning gradually, in order to get the most out of your practice. This was lovely to read. Sometimes it feels like with yoga classes as though you jump into the deep end, and end up feeling estranged from the spirit of things.
20 Basic Asanas
I would like to learn a little myself first, and to really learn to love and enjoy this amazing form of exercise and meditation. The book does not show sequences although it shows you how to form 20 postures, their balancing postures and Vinyasa Krama, which is the sequence which builds to a possible pose.
Developing a ‘morning’ sequence – salute to the sun
It is difficult without a clear sequence, to know where to begin, or how to build your own sequence, knowing very little about the done thing, as far as sequencing goes. So I looked on the internet for a nice morning sequence today. My AIM is to get invigorated for the day. My larger aim is to start the day in such a way, that I can build a really productive and special morning routine to frame the day.
Practice
This morning, I chose some postures and did their balancing moves. It was so lovely. There is something so special about how gently yoga can energise your body, when you are not trying to do too much too soon. The postures I chose made me feel so energised and alive in my muscles, but I want to get up, drink lemon water, and have a sequence to get into, that requires no preparation, so that I may adjourn to the balcony and soak up that sunrise air and light.
The best ones that I found are this sun salutation sequence which can be repeated from she knows health, and this one from good old about.com – sun salutations
There were others but these seemed to follow the lovely principles of the Body Breath and Mind book, of standing, stretching, then bending.
It is not going to be possible or practical to access the internet / computer, when I am trying to take advantage of that lovely space of the day that is clean and fresh and open, so I am going to note down in my book, a sequence, that I am going to write down here:
Good morning sun
The book suggests that you start in the starting pose like this for morning practice:
Samasthiti – Standing pose
Then both sites suggest you go into a forward bend, and the book suggested this too, to strengthen, stretch and lengthen your spine:
Uttanasana – Standing forward bend
As I am planning to get into downward dog from here, I have added another step of posture to set up for the down ward dog. This is Chakravakasana – a balancing posture of the Uttanasana:
Chakravakasana
From there, the downward dog:
Adhomukha Shvanasana – Downward Dog
And because I am taking the postures from the book so I can refer to it tomorrow sunrise, here is a little alteration, which is sunbird!! (nice!):
Chakravakasana – Sunbird
Then into the cobra. I love this one because it really strengthens and stretches your lower back, so energising:
Bhujangasana – Cobra
Back to downward dog:
Downward dog
And back to the standing posture, taking care to roll up one vertebrae at a time, with your head first, and salute the sun:
Samasthiti – Standing pose
Repeat
I am going to aim first for 15 minutes of salute to the sun practice each day, so I will repeat this, taking care to notice my breath, and to breathe long and aim for one breath per movement for 15 minutes.
Maybe you would like to do it too? I think it is good for us!! 😀 xoxoxox
This will be the start of an awakening morning routine. I often feel like doing yoga at bed time too, but for now mornings. Get the mornings right, and the whole day might fall into place. I can feel in my bones that yoga is addictive, it is the sort of thing that you want to get REALLY good at, cause it feels so AMAZING 🙂
I hope you have a lovely evening and a wonderful morning. Let’s do this!! 🙂 Goodnight!! xoxox
Reference
AG Mohan. Yoga – For Body Breath, and mind – a guide to personal reintegration. 1993. Rudra Press. Portland, Oregon.
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