Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

side to side to massage your spine. Then send your legs up to the ceiling and give them a
vigorous “shake” before hugging them back into your chest and finally releasing them back down
long on the floor beneath you, where you will bounce them out and then come to stillness for a
breath or two. Then come into the Child’s Pose and rest for a few breaths.
Active Cat
The Active Cat is a combination of the commonly named Cat Pose and Cow Pose. It opens the heart,
releases neck and shoulder tension, makes the spine more fluid and flexible, provides a gentle
massage to the internal organs, and activates the first and second chakras, which stimulates the
kidneys and adrenals.
1. Come onto your hands and knees in Tabletop position with your back aligned straight and parallel
to the floor, hands lined up directly underneath your shoulders, fingers spread wide apart, and
arms strong and straight, toes tucked under and heels lined up with your lower legs.
2. As you inhale, arch the spine down toward the floor, releasing the pelvis, roll the shoulders back
and down away from the ears, and look up, coming into cow pose.
3. As you exhale, release the toes and relax them flat down into the floor as you press the hands
more strongly into the earth, creating opposition with which to arch the spine and pelvis upward,
coming into cat pose.
4. Repeat the cow-to-cat movement, inhaling as you come into cow and exhaling as you move into
cat for a total of eight times and then pause, returning to neutral, Tabletop position.
5. Now inhale and extend the right leg straight out behind you and up as high as you can go, while
keeping the arms strong and straight and the neck long as you focus your gaze up.
6. As you exhale, bend the knee and draw it in toward your forehead as you lower the head down to
curl the spine into cat pose, coming as close to the right knee as possible.
7. Inhale, extend the spine and the leg behind you, and look up as you speak Sat silently inside.
Exhale, rounding the spine underneath you to make forehead and knee meet as you silently speak,
Nam. Start slowly and then build like a steam locomotive up to a moderate to vigorous pace,
tuning into your body’s wisdom to inform you as to which pace suits you best today. Repeat the
Active Cat, the action of extending and contracting with control and ease, inhaling and stretching
out with Sat and exhaling and tucking under with Nam, for a total of one minute. Then switch to
the left side and again, starting slowly to acclimate to what the left side of the body feels like and
needs, building your way up to real vigor for another minute.
8. After completing the second side, come to rest in the Child’s Pose for a few breaths. Rise up to
sit on your heels or come into Easy Pose and meditate for a breath or two. Bring your hands into
Root Mudra and, as you practice your Long Deep Breathing here in meditation, tune into the
abundant new subtle energy moving through you.
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