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

powerhouse and your outgoing breath as the engine, immediately rock back up on the exhalation
—again coming to arrive at the point of balance. Hold here for three short counts before rocking
backward again.
5. Repeat five to seven times.
Single-Leg Pull
The Single-Leg Pull builds the core and massages the internal organs even as it lengthens and tones
the muscles of the legs, shoulders, and arms.
1. Lying on your back, with your head lifted and eyes on your navel center, hug your right knee into
your chest, clasping the right ankle with the right hand and the right knee with the left hand, and
extend your left leg along the floor.
2. Double-pulse the right knee, squeezing it deeper in toward the chest, as you breathe in twice in
tandem with the movement of the knee. The rhythm is inhale-inhale. Extend your elbows wide out
to the sides of the body, pressing into your lattisimus dorsi muscles on your upper back under the
shoulders, so that the shoulders move down and away from your ears. Extend your left leg out
and away from your body, reaching through your toes as far as you can.
3. Switch sides and hand positions, drawing the left knee into the chest and clasping the left ankle
with the left hand and the left knee with the right hand. (Learning this first transition and the next
few may take some patience and concentration, as you must coordinate your hands with the
switching of the legs.) Then double-pulse again. The rhythm is exhale-exhale. Use short,
perfunctory, staccato breathing as you hug the left knee in toward your chest, making sure that
your breath is working in tandem with the movement.
4. Keep your head held high and in the same position you started with, looking at your navel
throughout the exercise. Continue in this way, hugging one knee tightly into the chest while
reaching the opposite leg away and breathing in and then out in the two-beat rhythm—employing
the principle of opposition.
5. Repeat for a total of six sets (right and left make one set).
Spine Stretch Forward
The Spine Stretch Forward uses the principle of opposition to increase flexibility in the spine and
hamstrings and build postural muscles and awareness.
1. Sitting up as tall as you can, extend your legs straight out in front of you, spreading them slightly
wider than hip-width apart and flexing the feet strongly. Bring your arms behind you, tenting the
fingertips into the floor to roll your shoulders open, down, and back, coming into perfect posture.
2. Maintaining the posture you’ve established, lift your arms out in front of you, holding them at
shoulder height, shoulder-width apart, with your fingers energized and reaching forward.