Brighten your day: Short uplifting yoga practice
Your yoga practice doesn’t always have to be long and serious. Sometimes, all you need is a few minutes of movement, conscious breathing, and inner focus to prepare for whatever challenges lie ahead.
This short yoga practice is a great way to lighten up and uplift your spirits any time you need it. It includes seven minutes of movement to get your juices flowing, five minutes of focused breathing to get you energized and focused, and five minutes of light-hearted meditation to greet your day with a smile. And you don’t even need a yoga mat!
The beauty of this practice is that you can expand either one of those elements (movement, breathing, or meditation) depending on what you need or want on a particular day. Need to energize your body? Add a few Sun Salutations or some of your other favorite moves in the first part of the practice, and then continue with breathing and meditation. Want to include more Pranayama in your practice? Take longer to move awareness through your body’s energetic centers and breathe into them in the second part of the practice, and then finish with a short meditation. Want to spend more time meditating? Take time to greet every organ and tissue within your body in the third part of the practice.
Customize it any way you want, or leave it the way it is if you only have 17 minutes to spare – it is entirely up to you. Just try to approach this practice playfully and have fun!
It’s a pretty well-known fact that breath regulation is the most obvious way to control our sympathetic (“fight-and-flight) and parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) balance, which directly impacts our stress response, sleep patterns, and energy levels.
Namaste Olga…thanks for this practice …very useful to start my day today…thanks a lot ?
Thank you Angela, great to hear it!