If you wake up feeling a little groggy or with a brain full of clutter, practicing a morning yoga flow can help clear the cobwebs. The following 15-minute yoga sequence makes use of your own creative energy, encouraging a “scribbly” approach to stretching and flowing. Consider it a free-writing journaling session for your body and an opportunity to release pent-up thoughts and emotions in the form of movement.

Get curious about where you’re at and what you need, and let your morning yoga practice inspire the sort of energy you want to carry into the day ahead.

15-Minute Morning Yoga to Awaken Creative Energy

All you need for this morning yoga practice is yourself, your mat, and a space to move.

Tabletop Variation

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Begin on your hands and knees in Tabletop—but immediately begin to make it your own. Move around in your space in whatever way feels best to you. Create circles with your hips, lift your legs, arch and round your spine, sway back and forth, try some body rolls.

Have fun with it for 1 minute or, if desired, longer.

Cat-Cow Tilt

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

With your next inhalation, stretch your right leg straight behind you. As you exhale, bend your right knee and cross it behind your left knee. Spread your feet out a bit wider behind you so they form a triangle with your knees.

Inhale as you arch your spine, lower your belly, and lift your chin toward the sky in a modified Cow Pose.

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

As you exhale, rock your sit bones back toward your heels even as you keep reaching your heart forward.

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Inhale as you round your back and shift your body forward, bringing your weight onto your hands and knees and tucking your chin in a modified Cat Pose.

Repeat this pattern of movement 3 times with the pace of your breath.

Bird Dog Variation

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

With your next inhalation, stretch your right leg straight behind you. As you breathe out, draw your right heel toward your sit bone and reach with your left hand to grab your right ankle for a Bird Dog variation. Send your heart forward as your right shin presses back. Stay here for 2 full cycles of breath.

Release and come back to Tabletop. With your next inhalation, stretch your left leg long back behind you and repeat Cat-Cow Tilt and Bird Dog Variation on the opposite side, finishing back in Tabletop.

Downward-Facing Dog

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

With your next exhalation, tuck your toes and send your hips up and back into Downward-Facing Dog. Stay here for 4 full cycles of breath.

Plank Pose

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Make some waves with your body here. Inhale as you shift forward into Plank Pose. Exhale as you lift your sit bones up and back to Downward-Facing Dog.

Repeat this pattern of movement 4 times, moving with the pace of your own breath and getting as fluid as feels right in your body.

Chaturanga

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

From Plank Pose, exhale as you bend your elbows, slowly lowering through Four-Limbed Staff Pose or Chaturanga.

Baby Cobra Pose

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Lower yourself all the way to the mat. Once you’re on your belly, untuck your toes and lengthen your spine, lifting your chest slightly in Baby Cobra Pose. Hover your hands above the mat here. Stay here for 2 cycles of breath before exhaling to release.

Press through Tabletop and exhale back to Downward-Facing Dog.With your next inhalation, roll forward to Plank and exhale as you lower through Chaturanga to land on your belly again.

Locust Pose

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Reach your arms back behind you, rooting the tops of your feet to the mat. Begin to float your heart up, firing up your core and then lifting your legs off of the mat in Locust Pose. Stay here for 2 full cycles of breath before exhaling to release down to your belly.

Press through Tabletop, exhaling back to Downward-Facing Dog.

With your next inhalation, roll forward to Plank and exhale as you lower through Chaturanga to land on your belly.

Bow Pose Variation

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Kick your right heel in toward your sit bone and sweep your left arm forward toward the top of your mat, thumb facing the sky. Reach back with your right hand and capture the top of your right foot with your hand.

As you inhale, float all of your limbs away from the earth in a variation of Bow Pose. Stay here for 2 cycles of breath. With your next exhalation, release back down to your belly and switch sides.

Downward-Facing Dog

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

When you’re ready, press through hands and knees to come back to Downward-Facing Dog. Move here for 3 cycles of breath, pedaling your feet, swaying your body, rolling your spine, or whatever else comes to mind and body.

Standing Forward Bend

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

With your next inhalation, send your gaze toward your hands. Exhale to travel to the top of your mat for Standing Forward Bend. Hang here, adding a soft bend to your knees.

Catch your elbows, bring your hands to the back of your head, or take hold of the backs of your calves or ankles for a deeper stretch.

Stay here for 4 cycles of breath.

Mountain Pose

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Slowly wind up to Mountain Pose, one vertebrae at a time.

Take a breath in to reach your arms up and overhead, exhaling back to Mountain. Inhale to sweep your arms up once more, exhaling to fold in Standing Forward Bend.

Halfway Lift

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Inhale as you lift halfway with a flat back. Exhale as you fold forward again.

Repeat this pattern of movement, a Half Sun Salutation, 3 times with the pace of your own breath.

Mountain Pose

(Photo: Daria LeGrand)

Finish in Mountain Pose with your palms together at heart center. Soften. closing your eyes and connecting to the earth through your feet. Feel the energy flow throughout your body and get curious about the energy you want to create with your day.

Set a simple mantra to carry you through your day and thank yourself for making it to the mat and honoring your creative energy with this morning yoga practice.