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Morning Yoga practice, Umag, Croatia (3/9)

A guided yoga practice integrates movement, breath, and awareness. Begin by feeling the body's contact with the floor, focusing on the spine. Proceed through a sequence of postures, coordinating each motion with the breath. Maintain awareness of specific body parts, such as the ankles during leg circles or the shoulder blades during twists. The practice includes variations of poses like spinal twists, leg raises, and forward bends. Breath observation is central; feel the inhalation moving from stomach to throat and the exhalation reversing this path. Conclude with prāṇāyāma and mantra repetition, emphasizing presence and the relaxation of the body and mind.

"Try to feel your inhalation moving from your stomach to your throat, and your exhalation moving from your throat to your stomach."

"Remain aware of your motion. Continue making large circles, and slowly finish."

Filming location: Umag, Croatia

Feel your entire body, the contact of your whole body with the floor. Try to feel your entire spine on the floor, pressing the lower part of your back down with your stomach, and drawing your chin slightly toward your chest. Slowly, when you are ready, raise your right leg and begin the bicycle motion. For the second variation, make large circles as if on a real bicycle. Do not forget your ankles and the rotation from your ankles. I'm sure you all know the joke that in yoga, the bicycle has no speed limit and no speeding ticket, so we can go a little faster. Just be careful not to lose the quality of the movement. Remain aware of your motion. Continue making large circles, and slowly finish. After the next circle, lower your legs. Take a few exhalations to relax your entire body. Now, of course, in the other direction. Again, raise your leg and start cycling. A little faster—do not forget your ankles and the soles of your feet. Slowly finish and relax your legs. Feel the circulation in your legs. You can feel your entire stomach, the lower part of your back, a sense of warmth. Simply observe your breathing. Try to feel your breath. Try to feel your inhalation moving from your stomach to your throat, and your exhalation moving from your throat to your stomach. Follow the breath from the chest to the neck, and exhale from the neck to the chest. Since we have created space in the shoulders, we will continue with spinal twists. Slowly spread your arms out to shoulder height. Widen your hips, and again, just try to feel this posture. Feel that your shoulders and shoulder blades are on the floor, and they should remain there throughout the entire twisting exercise. Practice: inhale to the center, and exhale to the other side. Inhale to the other side, inhale to the center, exhale to the center. Your knees go to the right, eyes look to the left. Inhale to the center, and exhale to the other side. Once more. Inhale to the center, exhale—knees go to the right, and exhale, look to your left. Inhale, come back to the center. With an exhalation, relax your legs. Place your hands beside your body. We will start all together. With an inhalation, raise your right leg. Exhale, bend your knee, press your thigh to your chest, and raise your head. Your shoulder blades remain on the floor. Stay in the position, inhale, lower your head to the floor, and exhale. Relax your legs. Now the left side. Inhale, raise your left leg. Exhale, pull your leg to your chest. Lift your head and breathe normally. Try to keep your right leg straight, as if pressing the inner part of the knee toward the floor. Try to stretch it out as if reaching through the knee. Inhale, lower your head to the floor, and exhale. Breathe normally. Again, try to straighten your left leg. Inhale, lower your head to the floor, and exhale. Slowly sit up into Vajrāsana. We will do Marjārī. Your palms are on your thighs, your back is straight, shoulders are relaxed. Slowly, with an inhalation, come up onto your knees. One, two. Place your palms on the floor, rounding your back, and try to press your stomach in, pulling it in a little. Three, inhale. Three, exhale. Four, exhale. Five. Six, exhale. Six, inhale. Seven, inhale. Eight, exhale. Nine. Slowly we come up, and ten. Then sit in Vajrāsana. Once more. One, inhale. Two, exhale. Three, inhale. Try to press your shoulders down a little more, as if pressing the floor. Four, exhale. Five, inhale. Wait. Six. Seven. Awesome. Nine. Slowly, we come up. Then sit back in Vajrāsana. We will do the second variation, with our palms and elbows on the floor. Before that, for a moment, inhale and exhale a little deeper. Try to feel your back, shoulders, and waist—any change, any circulation. Take a deep breath in and out, a slightly deeper inhalation and exhalation. Again, with inhalation we come up, and with exhalation we place our palms and elbows on the floor, round our back, and try to push away from the floor with your elbows a little more. Try to push your elbows away from the floor a little harder so you can feel this part of your spine, under the shoulder blades. Three, inhale. Three, inhale, exhale. Four, inhale. Five. Eight. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. We slowly come up. And ten. I guess now we are ready for Vyāghrāsana, the Tiger pose. Again, take a slightly deeper inhalation and exhalation. Now we are going to do Vyāghrāsana. Inhale, come up. Exhale, place your palms on the floor. Your right knee goes toward your forehead. Just breathe in this position. You are pushing away from the floor with your palms. Your thigh is as close to your chest as possible. Three. Try to keep your pelvis straight. There is actually no need to lift your leg very high; your thigh should be parallel to the floor, so you can lower your knee a bit. Four. And now you can raise your leg a little higher. In this position, you can raise your leg a bit. Five, five. Six, six. Seven, seven. Eight. Slowly place your knee on the floor. After we meet nine, we come up. Nine, slowly place the knee on the floor. Then we sit in Vajrāsana. See that you are removing your sweaters and jackets, so we will do the other side. So again, once: inhale fully, raise your knees. Two, lower your hands to the floor. The left knee goes toward the forehead. On the left side, just relax in this position. Again, try to raise your leg a little higher. Three, three. Four, four. Five. Six, six. Seven. Eight. We place our knee on the floor. We stretch. Nine, with inhalation we come up. And at this moment, just close your eyes, completely focus on your whole body, the queen, and slowly... Sit in Daṇḍāsana. We all know about Kāla and Deśa, so it is Brahma Muhūrta time; the sun is rising. It is a very special time of day, and among other things, it is a time when everything counts for double, which is why it is good to do something that is good for us. Not she, Abraham, who are they? A propel of Ramona, see them at the postman. Do Donna Cádiz me just a lot, so it’s the radical support was to go is that they are could. Oh, right. Thank you. Positive need of the story and about the place. Well, we are on the Adriatic coast, so we will do rowing. I'm sure you all know that is one really good exercise for warming our body. It is a very good exercise for warming up the body, for warming up and stretching the thighs, strengthening the thigh muscles. We will do 10 circles in each direction. The only important thing is that when you are going down—when we are inhaling and stretching our arms—try to keep your back straight. Do not do it like this, and then again in front, and then like a little ball. Try to stretch your arms and back so that in this position, your arms and back are in one line. We all have enough space in the hall, so it is actually like you have this big something above, behind your back, and you can just relax and enjoy. Okay, so we will try to do it that way. That’s a pūjā to them at around a... Legend of some cranium polo’s? Are you rookie ledger? Who you’re narrow meaning? Okay, so inhale with exhalation, bend forwards. Your palms are on the floor beside your feet, and slowly, with inhalation, we put our thumb in the fist. Thank you. Inhale, we go back and stretch our arms and stretch our fingers, and exhale. Easy. Two, inhale and exhale. Three. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine and ten, we will stay in this final position where our arms are stretched, the leg is straight, and we are halfway. We will just relax for a moment. Like this, just take a few inhalations and exhalations several times. Breathe in deeply, breathe out, relax. Try to remember Madhurī Mudrā. Your forehead is relaxed. Sit down in Madhurī Mudrā, face is relaxed, and slowly, with an exhale, come down. All the time, go down, and we turn our palms upwards. We turn our palms upwards and go in the opposite direction. Again, one inhale, one exhale, and exhale: two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. Slowly finish. You can place your hands beside your body. Relax. Again, try to feel the breathing and relax with every exhalation. You can put your hands behind your back. Inhale and exhale several times deeper. Try to relax with each exhale. Just follow this. Spread your body, inhale through your chest, and exhale through your chest. Now, slowly bend your toes and stretch. Do this a few times in your own rhythm, but try to bend them as much as you can, like when you were a child and wanted to grab something with your feet. Try to push your toes as hard as you can, like when you were a kid and wanted to lift something from the floor with your feet. Slowly, the whole foot moves forward, then we tighten the heel back. And rotation. Again, try to make big circles. On the other side, in the other direction. Slowly finish. Slowly finish, stand up. We will do Trikoṇāsana. Stand in a slightly larger stance, spread your shoulders so you are stable, and be careful not to bend your hips. Just make sure your feet are not slipping on your yoga mat. Your feet are apart the width of your shoulders, your back is straight, your pelvis is a little pushed to the front, and your knees are straight. With inhalation, we raise our arms. Exhale, we go to the left side. Inhale, come to the middle. Exhale, come to the middle. Inhale, come to the middle. Inhale, come to the middle, and exhale, lower your hands. It is easy, so let go of your hands. Inhale, again raise your arms, exhale to your right, and exhale, relax your arms. Now, we place our arms beside our body. Once more, inhale, exhale to your left. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale... Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and we will do it once more. So again, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale,... inhale, exhale,... inhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale,... Every breath you take. With inhalation, we come up, and exhale, relax the arms. Inhale on the other side, exhale, breathe normally. That normally means inhalation is from stomach to your throat, and exhalation is from throat to stomach. Just follow the expansion of the body that is happening. Inhale, again we come to the middle, we return to the middle, and exhale, relax. We will do the fourth variation of Trikoṇāsana, where we bend forward and then rotate, so our right arm goes toward our left ankle, and later on the other side. We shall do it only once on each side. So for a moment, just feel the position you are standing in. Again, try to straighten your back and relax your shoulders. Once more, inhale and exhale. No, do not start yet. Just feel your feet on the floor and feel this position. And now with inhalation, raise your arms. Exhale. When your back is parallel with the floor, rotate... Keep your knees straight, your legs straight, and you are looking at the fingers of your arm above your head. So inhale, we come to the middle. This time, se vratimo u sredinu, ravne kralježnice idemo gore. With a straight back, we come up, and exhale, relax our arms. We will do it on the other side. Let's go to the opposite side. Again, inhale, raise your arms. Exhale, from your hips with a straight back, go down until your back is parallel with the floor, and then rotate. Now slowly, you can try to press your heels a little more into the floor and deepen the stretching of your legs. Relax. So, slowly, you can push your heels a little harder toward the floor. Remember what is happening in the front part of the leg, how the whole front part tightens, especially the part from the inside of the knee, the front part of the thigh. With inhalation, slowly return to the middle. We come to the middle. With a straight back, we come up. And exhale, relax. And slowly, lie down in Ānanda Āsana. Again, feel your whole body. Try to feel the difference in your body after doing these āsanas. If you feel any tension in your body, try to release it with exhalation. If you feel any tension anywhere, just let it go. We will continue with Skandharāsana. Slowly bend your knees, placing the soles of your feet as close to your bottom as you can. Then hold your ankles. If you cannot hold your ankles, you can just place your palm as near as possible, and for a moment... feel this position and feel the position of your neck. As you see the position of the door, so the top of your head is not on the floor. Try to press your neck more into the floor and feel the stretching of your neck, this place where neck muscles connect with your skull. The stretching goes all the way to your shoulder blades. Try to make a nice movement, as if you want to press the door on the floor. Feel this tension of the door. You are grasping the muscle of the door, from the muscle of the door and the head, from that joint all the way to the place between the shoulder blades. Try to maintain that position of the door for the whole time of the exercise. Try to maintain this position of your neck during the whole practice of Skandharāsana. Take a slightly deeper inhalation and exhalation. With inhalation we come up, raising your hips as much as possible, as if you want your hips to be higher than your knees, and with exhalation go down. We shall do it two more times. So again, with inhalation, come up and exhale. We will do it once more. We will breathe normally in this position and stay as long as you feel comfortable. The important thing is that you breathe with your stomach. Usually, we say when doing āsanas they should be comfortable, and we should be aware of the position. So, try to be aware of your stomach, abdominal breathing, the stretching of your stomach, and how it affects your hip muscles, around your hips, your thighs, and the upper knee muscles. Again, with exhalation, you are relaxing the whole body. So again, with inhalation, come up, stay in the position, and breathe. It is actually not the type of āsana in which you can watch television. It is not a type of sleep that you can watch on TV. Therefore, you can really watch TURBUH, watch your breathing, how the TURBUH is spreading, the action of stretching the hips, the hip flexors, the hips and the upper knee, how the whole TURBUH is bleeding, the organs of the spine. The whole spine. Stay as comfortable as you like. In Sīṣḍīsēm, go down slowly. With exhalation, slowly go down. Stretch your legs. Skandhāsana is a very good āsana. If you have low blood pressure, it is much faster and much healthier than early morning coffee. So if you have problems with low blood pressure, it is much healthier than morning coffee. We will do Viparīta Karanī Mudrā. Slowly put your feet together, hands beside your body. Slowly connect your feet, raise your legs. With inhalation, raise your legs. Interlock your fingers as in Dvikonāsana and try to have your elbows as close together as you can. After the next exhalation, slowly go down, carefully placing your legs back on the floor. Slowly take a slightly deeper inhalation and exhalation. With the next inhalation, raise your arms above your head, stretching your whole body. Just do this. Time is taking the rookies, and your feet are—your heels are going off your body, fingers towards your body, and exhale. We will do it once more. So inhale, so your chin goes to your chest, and you are pushing the lower part of your back to the floor with your abdomen. See, it is the same as when we move to the right side. With exhalation, we turn onto our right side; inhale, we come to the middle; and exhale onto the left. Do it three more times on each side, in your own rhythm, at your own speed. Do it three more times on each side, as fast as you can, and as fast as your neighbor can. When you finish, just place your hands down on your body. And as the beautiful saying goes, sugar comes at the end, cuker comes sulec, we will do kāṭuprāṇām. So sit in Vajrāsana; we will do one round of kāṭuprāṇām, izaćemo jednu, jedan ciklus kāṭuprāṇāma. Feel the position of Vajrāsana. With inhalation, raise your arms, fold your palms. This time, join your palms, stretch your arms, and try to have your arms stretched so your elbows are straight. Your whole palm is folded, not like this with only the fingers, but the bottom of your palm also. Five, six, your right leg goes to the front. Seven, seven, awesome. Eight, nine, left leg goes toward the right, and ten, with a straight back, come up. Again, try to have your elbows straight, as if you want to put your upper arm to your ear and close your ears. Eleven, with a straight back, we go down. Eleven, twelve, right leg goes back. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, we go into Bhujaṅgāsana. If you do not feel safe on your hands, you can place your knees on the floor first. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, with stretched legs back, we are going up. And twenty, exhale and relax. Once more, we will do it a little faster, and then we will relax in Śaśāṅkāsana. So, we will go a bit faster in this second cycle. One, inhale. One, inhale. Two, exhale. Two, exhale. Three, inhale. Three, exhale. Four, try to hold your breath. Five, exhale. Five, inhale. Five, exhale. Six, left leg goes in front, inhale, stretch, try to hold your breath, exhale. With inhalation, right leg goes in front. Tilt the left one straight back. We come up, up, exhale. Eleven, twelve, left back, exhale. With empty lungs, we change position. Fifteen, sixteen, we go into Bhujaṅgāsana. Seventeen, inhale. Eighteen, exhale. Just stay for a few deep inhalations and exhalations in Śaśāṅkāsana. Hold yourself in the position of Śaśāṅkāsana, feel that breath, full from the spine to the neck. Considering that in this position the thoracic spine cannot spread forward, this fine stretching is transferred to the sternum, to the part of the lung, to the spine. You can feel it as a fine stretching. You can feel the circulation towards the head. So just observe your breathing and try to feel this stretching with inhalation from your stomach. As your chest cannot open in front, the stretching is reflecting on the back side of your lungs, where they are connected with your spine, and you can feel it like gentle stretching of the upper part of your back. Feel the circulation towards your head. Slowly, with the next inhalation and exhalation, slowly sit in Daṇḍāsana. We will do half butterfly, and we will repeat. Place your right ankle on your left thigh. If it hurts or you feel too much warmth in your knee, then do the variation where your foot is on the inner side of your thigh. Inhale, we stretch up, and exhale, we bend down. Inhale, we come up, exhale. Once more. One more time. Inhale, and exhale. With inhalation, we come up. With exhalation, we slowly put our hand down, stretch the leg, and we will do it on the other side. Again, inhale, raise your arm, exhale. Inhale, exhale, second time. Exhale, inhale, and once more. Inhale, slowly come up. Exhale, put your hand down, relax your leg, and butterfly. Leptir. Join the soles of your feet. You actually do not have to bring your knees up so high; just try to press your knees more toward the floor. And again, inhale, straight up. And exhale. Second time. Exhale. Inhale. Slowly come up. And once more. Exhale. Again, we come up. Slowly, we stretch our legs. You can shake them a little if you want. And sit in the prāṇāyāma posture. Okay, so we will do Bhastrikā prāṇāyāma. But if you have not done Bhastrikā until now, you can do Nāḍī Śodhana second level, the same as yesterday. So you inhale through your left and exhale through your right, and do it 20 times. If you know Bhastrikā, then we will do four rounds of Bhastrikā of 20. So, 20 inhalations and exhalations through your left nostril, 20 through your right, and 20 through both nostrils. That is one round, and we will do four like that. The most important thing is that your stomach is relaxed and that Bhastrikā is really acting on your stomach. So when you are exhaling, when you are inhaling, you are stretching your stomach, and with exhalation, it goes down. It is like a Scottish pipe, so try to breathe that way. Do not hold your breath in your chest, and do not shake your shoulders and things like that. Okay. So sit comfortably. Your back is straight. Your shoulders are relaxed. Slowly, you can close your eyes, relax your forehead and jaw. Feel and relax your neck and stomach. So, relax your forehead, eyes, eyelids, lower eyelids, shoulders, relax your back, and then most importantly, relax your spine. To begin, we will chant OṂ once. So, take a slightly deeper inhalation, a little deeper, slowly. When you are ready, you can start with prāṇāyāma. When you finish with prāṇāyāma, just continue with your mantra japa. In case you do not have a mantra, you can repeat "Oṁ Guru Dīp Namaḥ." So, I greet you, Divine Cosmic Light. Please remove all ignorance and darkness from my being. Do not sleep, do not drift somewhere. Be present. Just follow your breathing process and be aware of your mantra flowing. Mantra. Take a slightly deeper inhalation and exhalation. Again, become aware of your body, the position in which you are sitting. Slowly and slowly focus on your body. Feel the position in which you are sitting. Relax your shoulders, relax your forehead, your whole face. Chant OM three times and Nāhaṁkartā. So, slowly take a little deeper inhalation, three times. Now we are going to sing oṁ and nāhaṁ kartā. Take a deep breath. And slowly move your head to your left ear, to your right. Move your shoulders. So slowly move your head, shoulders, and fingers on your hands. Put your palms together. Join your palms together. Shake them and close them. Lean on your face. Warm up your face muscles, forehead, eyes, cheeks. Slowly open your eyes and bend forward. Feel the circulation towards your head. Stretching your back, slowly come up. So hurry on.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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