Cats Do It, Dogs Do It.............

I am an early riser.  Most mornings, I am wide awake around 4:30AM.  I am  one of those types who doesn't require much sleep.  I have plenty of energy regardless of how late I got to bed the night before. I love the quiet stillness of the morning, sipping my coffee in silence, taking time to organize my day.   I also get a few good yoga stretches in before I pour that first cup of coffee and go through my emails.

I am not the only one in the house who stretches in the morning.  My cat, Sambo, who sleep curled up beside me each night, opens his eyes the moment I do.  As he lies there, he stretches his entire body.  Then he raises himself from his nice warm spot and stretches again.  As he walks to his food dish, he manages to squeeze in one more really good stretch. 

My mom's dog does the same thing every morning.  Paws in front, he extends his body and sticks his little backside up in the air. Doggie Yoga!  It's adorable. As I watched him do this today I had an epiphany of sorts.  Animals instinctively know they need to stretch it out. Get the blood flowing.  Get rid of that of stiff, achy feeling from being in cramped up, curled up positions all night.  Hmmm. How many of us humans actually do this? 

Most of us open our eyes each morning and immediately hit the ground running.  There are showers to take, breakfasts to serve, lunches to pack, trains to catch.  Our minds are still foggy from sleep, our bodies are stiff.  Our bones and joints ache as we stumble to the bathroom hoping a hot shower will do the trick. 

It only takes five minutes to get a few good stretches in.  Stretching clears the mind, gets the body moving, opens our lungs to breathe fresh air, and eliminates the stale air we've been collecting all night. Those aches and pains you feel every day could miraculously disappear just by taking a few moments in the morning to move. 

Here is a link to some great morning yoga stretches. 


http://yoga.about.com/od/yogasequences/ss/dailystretch.htm

Try these tomorrow morning.  You can even do them at night after a stressful day at work.  Anytime you want. You can never do too many good stretches and your body, mind and spirit will thank you.......

And this is my Daily Cyn........