So every morning when you wake up, you have a choice on how you’re gonna feel that day. And by giving yourself just a little morning ritual, a daily routine, something you do every single morning to get your chi, which is your vital energy flowing, is gonna set your sails in the right direction for having lots of energy for the whole day and just warming up your body. So the first part is a very small, short meditation.

You wake up, you sit on the edge of your bed, you plant your feet on the floor, and you turn your palms open. You’re always welcome to experiment with the yoga mudra or doing anything else with your hands that feels good. Close your eyes, sit really tall, and take five to 10 long, slow, smooth, deep breaths.

Practice not thinking and listening to the sound of your breath. This is a great entry-level practice for meditation. Over time, you might extend it to five minutes, maybe 10, maybe even 20.

I used to try to sit cross-legged on the floor to meditate, and I always found myself achy and sore and fidgeting. So I do my best meditation sitting on the edge of the bed with my feet flat on the floor. After that, I’ve come up with a few basic things that you can actually memorize to set your day in the right direction.

The next one after your meditation is five deep breaths, doing the first and second pose of what’s called sun salutation. Now, we’re not gonna go through the whole routine, which is actually 12 poses, but just the first two, and we’ll repeat it. You can either have your feet together or parallel and hips-width apart and rotate your palms open.

You wanna be like a mountain. This pose is called tadasana. Mountains don’t move, and they’re made of rock, and they’re very permanent, and they’re very stable.

So you have this confidence with yourself, like, I’m a mountain, don’t mess with me. If someone tries to push you over, you’re a mountain, you’re not going anywhere. So you’re grounding yourself into the earth.

Then from there, you’re greeting the day. You inhale your arms up overhead and look up. You can make a prayer pose if it feels good.

Then turn your palms out and reach to the sidewalls as you slowly lower your chin and come back down. Concentrate on the sound of your breath as you inhale and fill your lungs with fresh, positive energy that’s all around you, and you exhale any stress that might be lingering in your mind or your body. Emphasize the movement of your neck and inhale up and exhale down.

Once you get the hang of this, you won’t even need to watch the video. It can just be five deep breaths in your quiet space in that place we call the morning innocence, like first thing in the morning. You haven’t even had an anxious thought yet.

The next thing, I usually call it the kitchen counter stretch. It can be done with a bar, with the wall, really anything. You could put your hands like this.

You could put them here. If your bathroom counter is a little lower, no big deal. So you’re gonna look at your feet and line them up parallel and hips width apart.

Bend your knees and stick out your bottom. Place your hands on the surface. And remember, if you don’t have a countertop, just put your hands on the wall.

You do want to have an inward curve in your lower back. So not like this, but like that. Knees are bent and you’re sticking out your bottom.

Gently lower your ears between your arms. If you’re flexible, make sure you don’t go too low as we can overstretch our shoulders. Try to keep a nice natural alignment.

And then in slow motion with your breath, bend your right knee as you straighten your left. Press that hip back and elongate the left side of your body, even turning your head to look out from under that arm. Everything on my left side is stretching and it feels wonderful.

In slow motion with the breath, switch sides. And as you’re doing this motion, one leg is bending and the other is straightening. Turn your rib cage.

Really get every part of your body involved. Keep your fingers open and spreading. Concentrate on your breathing.

Your legs are switching, one bent, one straight. Your head is turning towards the straight leg. If you had a tail, you’re wagging it away from the straight leg.

And that is your rhythm. I learned this in Kung Fu, it’s called the monk’s walk. And I like to call it the kitchen counter stretch because anybody can do it at home in their kitchen anytime.

That’s a part of our morning routine. The next part, you’re gonna take your right foot and place it up against a wall. Now I put this band here just to help you visualize what heel to arch alignment looks like.

So my left foot is way out there and it’s turned out. And I have what’s called heel to arch alignment. My left heel is bisecting my right arch.

Now I came up with this little sequence to give you a little fast forward as if you’d been to five or six yoga classes in three minutes. Your hands are gonna go on your hips. You don’t have to wonder which way your hips go.

They’re on a little diagonal that is set by the position of your feet. They’re already in the right place. Look at your front knee and bend it so that it comes right over your heel.

This may be familiar to you is the foundation of warrior two, side angle and various other standing yoga poses. But for our purposes, we’re going to practice moving in and out of that foundation with the breath. Inhale at the top, exhale as you go in.

Keep a vertical spine. You might find a tendency to do this. So always remember you can still touch the wall with your back arm.

After five or 10 repetitions, bend the knee deeply, rest the forearm on the knee and pause. If you’re in the mood to do the full form of the pose, you take the arm long, your hand could go on the floor. But early in the morning, I just keep my hand on my hip and hold for a few breaths, rolling that top shoulder open.

When you’re ready, root into that foot to float to standing. Now the leg is going to stay straight, the same leg. And you’re going to turn your body so that the top side of your waist stretches as you slide your hand down your leg.

Come back up slow. In the beginning, you might be thinking about your leg and reaching and looking at it. But over time, you want to learn how to open it up to get the benefit here.

And the numbers really don’t matter, but five to 10 repetitions with your breath. Moving slowly and gently. Once you’ve done your five to 10, you could hold the posture a little longer, bringing your top shoulder back.

And if you wanted to take the top arm to the sky, you could. This is a modification of full triangle pose, Trikonasana. You don’t have to do the whole thing, just practicing coming in and out of it to wake up your body.

And last but not least, you’re going to bend the knee and place your palm on the floor on the inside of your foot. Now that might not work right away, but if you do the other two for a few weeks, the floor is going to somehow start to get closer. And the first time you touch it, you’ll know your hip has been stretched and liberated, and you’re creating all kinds of new territory in your hips.

When you set yourself up on the other side, always remember to get your foot all the way up against the edge. See your heel to arch alignment. And just a quick review, 10 of these, 10 of these, and 10 of these, and that’s 30 breaths.

You do both sides, that’s 60 breaths. If you do this whole thing after your meditation in the morning, you’re going to feel really tuned up, really connected from the mind to the body. You can always say a little prayer during your meditation to integrate it into whatever other spiritual practice you already have.

And remember, this is just you getting to know you, so it doesn’t have to look like anything, and it’s just set up to help you get your day started.