Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - Simple Wake Up & Stretch for a Fantastic Day

Episode Date: November 7, 2022

This morning, wake your mind and body with mindfulness and yoga designed to encourage simplicity in your life. Enjoying Wake Me Up? Get ad-free access to the entire WMU catalog + bonus content by joining the WMU Premium Feed. Sign up and start your 7-day free trial at https://wakemeup.supercast.com/. Follow the show on Spotify - Apple Podcasts - Amazon - Podchaser Say hi or request an episode at www.wakemeuppodcast.com/contact. See visual guides for the yoga and stretches in WMU episodes at www.wakemeuppodcast.com/stretches. And find the podcast on Instagram and TikTok. **Only partake in the physical movements suggested in Wake Me Up episodes if you are physically able and in safe surroundings. All movements are done at the individual's own risk. Be safe, and always consult a doctor if you have any questions or concerns.** Have a wonderful day 😃 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you'd like to enjoy Wake Me Up completely ad-free and get access to exclusive bonus content, check out the link in the show notes for the Wake Me Up premium feed. Hey there, and welcome to Wake Me Up. I'm your host, Tyler, as always. This is a wake-up and stretch episode where we'll get out of bed and prepare the mind and body for a great day. And in all of this week's episodes, we'll be talking about simplicity. Reducing the amount of responsibilities and things on your to-do list

can drastically improve your quality of life because humans have limited focus. We can't do everything all at once, not very well at least. So with simplicity, not only will you be better at the few things you focus on, but you'll also find that you're more fulfilled by those things too.

Today, we'll get out of people, bed, get our minds in a good place, and do a nice easy stretch. And all of this will be geared towards keeping things simple so that you can have a fantastic day. Now let's go ahead and get started. Maybe you're beginning this from bed, or maybe you're up and about. Either way, it's just fine. But wherever you find yourself right now, let's all just pause and enjoy the peace and quiet here in this moment. And that sense of ease, that you've chosen to be here now, that there's nothing you need to do and nobody you need to show up for.

This is your time. And this is also your day. You have free will. You have ownership of what you choose to do. with your day. So consider the one or two things that if you did them today would make this a great day.

Maybe that's a bit of exercise, putting some time into a hobby, cooking your favorite meal or spending time with someone you care about. Don't pick too many, just one or two. We want to keep this simple. And once you have those couple of things,

Take a deep breath in. Fill all the way into your belly. Hold at the top. And as you exhale, release all of the other non-essential things from your day. Once more now, inhale, filling even deeper this time. Hold and exhale, release, letting go of all of those non-essentials. Remember, this is your day. You have the power to make what you want with it.

Now, it's time to get up and start making the most of it. So if you're in bed, roll over and make your way to standing up. All right, now that we're all up and out of bed, let's do a quick stretch, a nice and easy one, just to help wake the body up. And as always, just a quick word of warning. Don't do any of these stretches if you're not physically able or if you're in pain. My stretches are just suggestions. You should always feel free to modify or pick something completely different if you'd prefer.

And if you're ever confused about a stretch or you'd like to see a visual guide, you can find a link for that in the show notes. So like I said, we're going to do a really simple stretching routine today. We're going to start with a very simple movement tied to the breath. So stand up straight, feet flat on the floor, hands down by your sides. And on an inhale, lift your arms forward and up over your head so that your hands are pointing to the ceiling. And then on your exhale, lower your hands back down to your sides.

Again, just tying some movement with the breath, trying to warm the body. We'll do that a few more times. So inhale, reaching your arms forward, and all the way up over your head. Exhale and lower. Nice and steady. Keep that breath really smooth. Again, inhale, reaching your arms forward and up. And when you get to the top, add a little back bend this time.

Reach up and back, just a little. Then exhale, lower your arms back down. One last time, inhale, reaching the arms forward and up. Reach a little bit farther this time and add that back bend if you'd like. And then exhale, lower back down. Fantastic. Now we're going to add on to that with a little forward fold. So inhale again, reaching your hands to the sky, reach all the way out of your shoulders.

And on your exhale, fold forward at your waist. Let everything relax towards the ground. Release your arms. Release your neck. Soften your face. And just hang out here for a little bit. If there's a variation you'd like to take, go for it. But try to keep it simple today.

Nothing too fancy this early in the morning. All right. Now slowly begin to roll all the way back up to standing. And when you get there, without a pause, inhale again, reaching your hands to the sky, and exhale, forward fold once again. Try to settle a little bit deeper this time. Maybe that means you have a slight bend in your knees, where you sway side to side, or you just sit perfectly still if that's what's right for you.

And let's do one full round of breath here, in and out. As you let that air out, slow. Slowly, steadily, make your way to the ground to all fours. So hands under your shoulders, knees directly under your hips. We're going to do a few cats and a few cows. So now that you've made it to the ground on all fours, inhale and reach your head up, arching your back down. That's cow.

Exhale, do the opposite. So drop your head towards the ground and arch your back up towards the ceiling, just like a cat. One more time through those. Inhale to cow, looking up, raising your head, and arching your back down towards the ground. Really accentuating that spinal curve. And then exhale to cat, arching your back up, pressing the hands into the ground, and dropping the head. and then release, come back to neutral, and press yourself back to Child's Pose

for our last stretch of the episode. To get to Child's Pose, all you need to do is drop your hips and your bottom back towards your feet. Rest your arms on the ground, rest your chest and your head towards the ground as well. Go as deep into this stretch as it feels comfortable. We all have different levels of hip flexibility.

So just go as far as it feels good for you. While you're here, again, enjoy this moment of peace and quiet. You can even close your eyes if you'd like. And remember what you did at the beginning of this episode. You chose a couple of things to focus on today. You found some simplicity in your day. So for those one or two, two things that you really want to make happen, how can you ensure that they do?

Maybe it requires a little compromise today, and that's okay. Like just 15 minutes of that hobby instead of a full hour, or calling that friend instead of seeing them in person. Whatever it is, committing to these simple pleasures, all but guarantees, your day is headed in a fantastic direction. So it's about time to wrap up now. I'm going to leave you here in child's pose, so do whatever you'd like,

whether that's hanging out for longer or getting up and going about your day. Tomorrow in our meditation will be staying on theme with a very simple but very powerful meditation technique that will help you hone in on what's most important to you,

thereby allowing you to simplify and streamline your life. So I hope to see you there. And until then, Go out and have a fantastic day.