This Is the Body You Have
By Joaquin Brown, CTO, Yoga Wake Up
I've been thinking about something my body did this morning.
It woke up. Not dramatically, not willingly, and definitely not without complaint. My lower back had opinions. My eyes took a moment to agree on a focal point. My brain surfaced three things I forgot to do yesterday before I'd even looked at my phone.
But it showed up. The same way it has shown up, every single morning, for my entire life.
I've been building a morning ritual app for years, and if there is one thing that has quietly shifted how I think about mornings, it's this: we spend a remarkable amount of time wishing our bodies were different. Faster. Quieter. Less creaky. Better at sleeping through the night. And almost no time at all being grateful for what they actually do.
I wanted to make something about that. So I did.
"Our Bodies Are Doing Their Best" is a new 7-minute bed meditation from Joaquin, now live in the Yoga Wake Up app. It's about gratitude for the body you have, any morning, stiff or not. Open the app to listen
Why I recorded it
I didn't make this for the hard mornings specifically. I made it for any morning. The good ones, the unremarkable ones, the ones where your back is stiff and your coffee is the only thing you're looking forward to.
Because gratitude for your body doesn't require a hard day to earn it. Your body has been doing something remarkable every single morning without you asking. Your lungs filled and emptied all night. Your heart kept its rhythm. Whatever you did yesterday, however you slept, however many times you woke up at 2am with a list of concerns that seemed urgent in the dark, your body showed up this morning.
That is worth something. And somewhere along the way, most of us stopped noticing it.
The meditation I recorded is called "Our Bodies Are Doing Their Best." It's just under seven minutes. It starts with a breath, not a perfect one, just the one you're already taking. It moves through what your body has actually been carrying. Your lower back, stiff as it might be, has been holding you upright for years. Your legs have carried you through every hard thing you've walked through. Your arms have held the people you love.
And then it asks you to hold yourself.
What it asks of you
There is one movement in the meditation. Near the middle, I ask you to wrap your arms around yourself.
That's it. Just hold yourself the way your body has held you, all this time.
It sounds simple because it is. Most of us can do it right there in bed, before we've done a single thing. No mat required, no warm-up, no particular level of flexibility. You just fold your arms across your chest or wrap them around your shoulders, and for a moment you hold the body that has been showing up for you every single day.
I've done this meditation myself, in the recording and since. And what strikes me every time is how rarely we do this. We hold the people we love. We hold our kids, our partners, our friends when they need it. We almost never hold ourselves.
The meditation ends with something I mean completely: "Your body is doing its best. So are you. Both of you, go have a wonderful day together."
I think the "together" is the part that matters. Not you using your body. You and your body. The same team, doing the same thing, every morning.
Where to find it
"Our Bodies Are Doing Their Best" is live in the Yoga Wake Up app now. You'll find it in the morning section.
Do it in bed, before you get up. That's what it's designed for. Wrap your arms around yourself, take a few minutes, and then go have your day.
A new free session is waiting for you every morning
