Yoga Wake Up Morning Routine

I love this app. I have chronic health issues and wake up in a lot of pain each day. This app is such a positive way to start my day. You can pick from tons of “wake ups”. Some are just meditations and a little movement, others have stretching and restorative yoga poses you can do in bed as you wake up. Then others get you up and doing standing yoga poses right next to your bed. They all have different themes and vary in length so you can choose what’s right for you each day. For someone who had a tough time getting out of bed each day, this has been a game changer. I start everyday on a more positive note. And it keeps me from looking at my phone or checking in with the world and letting all the noise in my head first thing when I wake up. At least now for a few minutes I’m feeling into my body, focusing on gratitude and connecting to my intuition - depending on which wake up I choose. I highly recommend this app.

I’ve had this app for about 4 months and I love it. However, it stopped waking me up somewhere around 2-3 updates ago (I’m pretty sure it was when the sleep tracking was released). I turned off the sleep tracking and reviewed my alarms and noticed that the volume bar was grayed out on all of them, which explained why I was getting the “have a nice day” message but not hearing the alarm. That seems to have been fixed with this latest update, because I was able to adjust the alarm volume up last night. However, this morning I got the message that I had an alarm set that did not go off because the app was not open. That wasn’t actually true though, my phone was locked with the app running, which I confirmed by opening my phone. I’m disappointed because I love waking up to the soothing sounds and getting a morning stretch without having to touch my phone (which is why I paid for the service for a year) but it just isn’t working like that anymore. I’m on the latest iOS 11 service pack, so I know it isn’t happening because of old phone software.

I’m still on the fence to purchase so I’ve only been using the free recordings since the majority of them require a subscription. For the ones I’ve listened to, I love them! The quality instructors and the message and movement together bring a beautiful meditation practice. The wake up from bed sessions are amazing - even for the mornings you don’t even want to open your eyes, by the end I’m sitting up and ready to get my day going. Some mornings that is NOT easy for me! The one thing I’ll point out is the music selection is sometimes a little distracting but that’s just a personal preference. At one point an easy meditative song transitioned to Natalie Merchant (singing “thank you” so there was a message there, but still), then another practice had a song with multiple loud drum sounds - cool songs that might be fun to dance to - it just took my attention away from the practice a bit. Overall the app is definitely worth downloading and trying. Again the quality of the instructors is really powerful, super knowledgeable, and deliver with a kind tone. I’m grateful for this app after every session!

I don’t like waking up! This app really helps me to not only ease into a wakeful state - it also helps me to feel really good while waking up. The yoga stretches can be done in bed, which allows me to awaken gradually, stretching and getting in touch with my body, so that I start my day energized in mind and body rather than my previous wake up method of stumbling around until I had enough coffee in my to come out of my sleep fog. (I still love my coffee, and actually get to enjoy it more now that I’m not relying on it alone to wake me up). I like the variety of teachers and sessions provided. I’ve gone through them and selected my favorites that I use each morning. I’m next going to explore the variety of meditations they have that can be used not only in the morning, but also throughout the day. I love this app!

I love that I can set different alarms for different days and that there are a lot of different guides sessions to choose from. I dislike that the app can’t be running in the background to work. I also dislike that I have to actively open the app for the alarm to work. This has been especially problematic since the app has crashed while I slept the last several nights. Getting a push notification in the morning telling me that I had an alarm set, that didn’t go off because the app was closed, is not helpful. Doubly so when the app was running when I went to sleep. If it can be programmed to send me a push notification at the time I had an alarm set for, I don’t see why it can’t be programmed to just alarm at that time (even if it’s without the full guided program.) I also don’t find the sleep tracker to be useful at all. The minute I lay my phone face down on my night stand, it just assumes I’m sleeping. So, at this point I’m using two alarms— one that actually tracks my sleep and goes off even if the app is closed. (It doesn’t sleep track if closed, but it still alarms!) And then I’m using Yoga WakeUp set to go off 5 min later— which doesn’t sleep track at all, but has a lovely, pleasant & useful alarm as long as the app has not crashed while I’m asleep.