Do you have a regular morning practice?

image compliments of Flower Garden by Ashley Pless

I would love to hear the stories of practitioners who practice in the morning before the day begins.  I'm betting there are a few categories - the people who are up at 4am naturally, and love to practice (this is NOT me), those who practice occasionally, when time allows, and then there are those who have struggled to establish a routine, but manage to practice most days.

Having the first glimmers of a morning practice in place for myself is really exciting.  Yoga is not about gymnastics for me anymore.  It is about creating regular, healing stops along the way during my day, to keep me from getting too imbalanced.  So my 25 minute morning practice that includes a few minutes of meditation is such a gift!  It's such a departure from my perfectionist need to do 1 hour of gymnastics.  It's simple, it's not goal oriented, except that I do ask of myself a few minutes of seated meditation at the end.

Having a strong utkatasana vinyasa (sequence of moves that are breath dependent, in and out of the asana position) really gets me pumping, and after each repetition, I rest for a few breaths.  This morning I tried to open chakra 3b, the equivalent of the solar plexus but in the back of the body.

image and text box compliments of visionary music

3B Solar Plexus (back)

Reflects one's relationship between their life and their feelings toward their physical body, the level of caring towards the physical - Health, Diet, Exercise, Inner Love

Yes, these are all things I've been working on... developing a positive relationship with my body, where I listen and try to give my body what it's asking for now, rather than what my habits suggest.

I would love to hear from others about what you are working on in your practice - morning or otherwise!