Yoga with Melissa

Your hips don't need another passive stretch. They need context, strength, and internal rotation. If you are dealing with a deep glute ache, front-of-hip pinching, or a lower back that takes over every time you move, traditional "hip opening" classes might actually be making your problem worse. Roll out your mat for this full-length functional flow to experience what the yoga industry gets wrong about your hips and discover the exact strength habits that actually bring lasting relief.

In this full-length functional yoga class, we challenge the mainstream narrative of passive flexibility. Instead of collapsing into floor stretches that cause your nervous system to grip and lock down, we focus on active ranges of motion, deep hip flexor strength, and the missing link in most yoga practices: internal rotation. By building stability and giving the joint capsule neurological safety, you can finally find true, lasting freedom in your movement.

What you will need for this practice:

Two yoga blocks

If you enjoyed this practice and want to explore more somatic movement education, nervous system regulation, and functional templates that support your daily mobility, consider joining our membership community.

https://melissawest.com/membership

Autumn Yin Yoga and Somatic Release for Deep Grounding and Anxiety Relief

Is your mind stuck on a non-stop loop, rehearsing future conversations or obsessively trying to predict outcomes just to feel safe?

When anxiety takes over, it doesn’t just stay in your head. It locks down your physical body. You might find yourself breathing shallowly into your chest or experiencing total brain fog. Maybe you spent the entire day staring intensely at screens, leaving your eyes strained, your posture rigid, and your energy completely disconnected from your lower body.

If you try to go into long yin holds when you're this spun up, turning down the external noise can actually make the internal anxiety feel even louder. Instead of forcing yourself to "calm down" this class creates a somatic bridge.

In this 60-minute Yin Yoga class for Anxiety and Grounding, we are doing things differently.

Instead of forcing your body into deep, mechanical stretches or fighting a racing mind, we will use gentle, brain-reorganizing and nervous system regulating somatic movements. By using the floor as a tactile mirror, you will learn how to shift your attention out of hyper-rational overdrive and down into your physical center.

What you will experience in this class:

An Effortless Neural Reset: Gentle, micro-movements that invite the deep gripping in your lower back, jaw, and shoulders to naturally melt away.

True Grounding: A structured transition from a scattered, fragmented state into a heavy, safe, and deeply anchored physical presence.

Space to Breathe: Somatic mapping that frees up your rib cage, allowing a satisfying, organic belly breath to return without force.

The Art of Undoing: A safe container to let go of the exhausting need to manage, control, or perfect your present moment.

Whether you are finishing a long day of desk work, feeling emotionally overwhelmed by taking on everyone else's stress, or simply can't find your center, this practice is your rescue line.

✨ PROPS NEEDED: A yoga mat and a 2 yoga blocks

Are you tired of holding everything together, but finding it hard to let go? As autumn routines fill the calendar and the days grow shorter, you may find yourself wanting more rest while still planning, managing, and holding everything together. Unfinished tasks and conversations might be following you into your quiet times, preventing rest. Even when you lie down, your mind may keep working.

This 30-minute yoga nidra for letting go offers a place to set some of that down. Through guided body awareness, breathing, and autumn imagery, you’ll have time to soften physical holding, make room around a busy mind, and rest with some questions still unanswered.

You don’t have to know how to let go before you begin. You’re welcome here with your thoughts, your feelings, and whatever remains unfinished.

In this practice, I’ll guide you through:

🍂 Settling into a comfortable, supported resting position

🍂 Breath awareness with an optional breath for letting go

🍂 A heartfelt intention that gives you permission to rest

🍂 A guided journey of awareness through your body

🍂 Autumn imagery exploring holding and releasing, movement and stillness, fullness and spaciousness

🍂 An unhurried return to your day

You will leave feeling more rested, with a little more space around what you’re carrying and permission to let some things wait.

Practise on your bed, couch, or yoga mat. Bring a blanket and any pillows or bolsters that help you feel comfortable. You’re welcome to rest on your side and adjust your position whenever you need.

🍂 Continue with me inside the Inner Radiance Yoga Community

If making room for rest brings up questions about your time, energy, and availability to others, join us in our current exploration of the metal element through boundaries. I’m teaching this from a brand-new perspective that I haven’t shared before.

You’ll also find our metal element course and autumn retreats to support your practice throughout the season.

Explore the membership: https://melissawest.com/membership

📖 Practise with my book, Five Element Yin Yoga

For a companion to this yoga nidra, turn to the metal element section of Five Element Yin Yoga and continue exploring your autumn practice.

Find the book here: http://melissawest.com/book

You are welcome to return to this practice whenever you need a rest.

With gratitude,

Melissa

Gentle Beginner Somatic Pilates for Core Stability | Single Leg Circles | YWM 774

Explore core stability without strain in this gentle beginner Somatic Pilates class. Through somatics you will mobilize your pelvis, hip joints, ribs and breath before building toward the beginner Pilates Single Leg Circle.

This class will help you:

Discover core support

Improve awareness and mobility in the hip joints

Reduce unnecessary effort in the neck, jaw and ribs

Explore Single Leg Circles with more comfort and ease

Gentle Lung Opening Qigong Yoga Flow for Autumn

Draw in the pure qi of the heavens and let each exhale release what is complete in this Gentle Lung Opening Qigong Yoga Flow for Autumn.

Inspired by autumn light shining through the leaves like cathedral windows, this practice invites you to experience each inhale as inspiration. Each breath is an opportunity to receive fresh, nourishing qi. Each exhale offers space to soften, release, and let go.

This gentle qigong yoga flow for the lungs includes breathing from the heels, Cloud Hands, Circling Sparrows, Crane Qigong, White Healing Mist, and flowing yoga movements for the spine and rib cage. Together, these practices encourage whole-body breathing, create more space around the chest and lungs, and connect your breath with the support of the earth beneath you.

Drawing on the wisdom of the Metal element, this autumn qigong yoga flow supports strong lungs and better breathing while honouring the seasonal movement of receiving and releasing. Let the breath move through you like autumn light, illuminating what continues to nourish you and gently carrying away what is complete.

Members Check out our Autumn Metal Element Course Here:

https://www.members.melissawest.com/five-element-theory-courses/metal-element-course/

Try an Autumn day of Silence: https://www.members.melissawest.com/Community/forum/229-autumn-2015-day-of-silence/

Or a 2 Day Metal Element Retreat https://www.members.melissawest.com/Community/forum/414-metal-element-retreat-autumn-2019/

Feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or like your nervous system is on high alert?

Are you feeling ungrounded or dysregulated, like it is impossible to find a sense of safety within your own body? YMaybe you feel "tired and wired" or you have a racing mind, or a persistent sense of anxiety that makes it hard to be present. 

This somatic meditation will welcome all of you, including the parts that feel anxious and dysregulated

In this guided somatic meditation (YWM 772), we focus on:

Connecting with Support: Realizing that you don’t have to carry it all alone. We explore the support that is already present beneath you and around you.

Grounding through Presence: Moving from your "thinking" brain into your "feeling" body to find stability.

Emotional Regulation: inviting your nervous system to move from a state of high alert into a state of reassurance and ease.

The Power of the Pause: Cultivating the confidence to stop, notice, and simply exist in the present moment without judgment.

If you are navigating a stressful season or just need a moment to reset your nervous system, this practice offers you reassurance and emotional regulation.

No previous experience with somatic work is required.

If you found relief in this practice, you might also enjoy: Somatic Meditation for Daily Nervous System Regulation |YWM 769

https://youtu.be/ik3yDGbvdWQ?si=Zr-EuCnynyRIVinS 

Join the Community: Subscribe to Yoga with Melissa for weekly somatic practices, restorative yoga, and tools for a regulated life.

Take Your Practice Deeper: Join Our Membership Community

If you are ready to move beyond daily regulation and create lasting change, I invite you to join our Yoga with Melissa membership community. When you join, you’ll gain immediate access to our comprehensive two-month nervous system reset:

Month 1: Settle Your Nervous System – Focus on calming the "tired and wired" state and finding your baseline of safety.

Month 2: Expand Your Capacity – Learn to grow your nervous system’s resilience so you can handle life’s stressors with more ease.

In addition to these programs, members enjoy an extensive library of somatic movement education classes designed to help you inhabit your body with more freedom and less pain.

Join us here and start your journey: https://melissawest.com/membership

Are you feeling stiff and tight? Many of us have achy hips, tight hamstrings, and a feeling of being overwhelmed. When your nervous system is on high alert, it’s hard to find your center.

In this Hatha yoga class, we use the story of Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, to help you move through the physical and emotional blocks holding you back. Through deep hamstring stretches, hip openers, and the stabilizing challenge of Half Moon pose, you will:

Release Chronic Tension: Ease the physical "grip" in your hips and legs that contributes to lower back pain.

Regulate Your Nervous System: Shift from a state of burnout or shock into a grounded, calm presence.

Cultivate Inner Stability: Use balancing poses to build the inner resources needed to handle life’s obstacles with ease.

This practice will help you feel more centered, focused, and ready for your day.

In this video:

Ganesha storytelling for overcoming life’s hurdles

Deep hamstring and hip opening sequence

Step-by-step guidance into Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana)

Calming Hatha flow for stress relief

When lower back pain makes it difficult to sit, stand, walk or even lie down comfortably, it can feel as though there is no safe way to move. Maybe the pain returns every morning, flares “out of nowhere,” or has left you carefully monitoring every bend and twist. Perhaps you have tried stretching, strengthening, physiotherapy or chiropractic care and still feel at your wit’s end. This gentle 35-minute yoga practice offers a simple place to begin, with easy-to-follow movements to help ease tension, mobilize your spine and hips, and help your body feel less guarded. At the end, I will guide you through a short somatic experiment that may reveal how much effort you are using to protect your back and what else might be possible.

✨ The real gold is inside my Inner Radiance Membership, where we move beyond temporary relief and explore how to rebuild comfort, movement choice and confidence.

In Lower Back Pain Relief | Somatic Movement Education, our new 60-minute class, you will discover how to move so your lower back does not have to do everything.

In Lower Back Pain Flare-Up Relief | When Every Position Hurts, you will receive a gentle 30-minute practice for those difficult moments when sitting, standing and lying down all feel uncomfortable. 

Join the membership to access both complete classes and learn how to inhabit and move with your back differently: https://www.melissawest.com/membership

#yogaforbackpain #lowbackrelief #gentleyoga

If you are feeling overwhelmed by chronic stress, physical tension, or just "tired and wired" you are not alone. Especially in the summer heat, heatwaves, and hot weather most of the world has been experiencing this summer. When your nervous system is stuck in a state of high alert, it can manifest as persistent anxiety, chronic pain, and a mind that won't shut off.

This somatic meditation is designed to find safety in your body, helping you move from a state of survival into deep, restorative rest. By the end of this class, you’ll experience a sense of inner calm, reduced physical discomfort, and a more regulated vagus nerve, leaving you feeling grounded and resilient for your daily life.

Take Your Practice Deeper: Join Our Membership Community

If you are ready to move beyond daily regulation and create lasting change, I invite you to join our Yoga with Melissa membership community. When you join, you’ll gain immediate access to our comprehensive two-month nervous system reset:

Month 1: Settle Your Nervous System – Focus on calming the "tired and wired" state and finding your baseline of safety.

Month 2: Expand Your Capacity – Learn to grow your nervous system’s resilience so you can handle life’s stressors with more ease.

In addition to these programs, members enjoy an extensive library of somatic movement education classes designed to help you inhabit your body with more freedom and less pain.

Join us here and start your journey: https://melissawest.com/membership

30 min Somatic Pilates for BEGINNERS: Build Core Strength with Ease | YWM 768

Link to Become a Member https://melissawest.com/membership

Experience a 30-minute Somatic Pilates class designed specifically for beginners who want to build core strength without the traditional "burn" or unnecessary tension. In this class, we move away from high-intensity precision and instead focus on ease, coordination, and relational movement.

Many traditional Pilates classes focus on isolating muscles, which can often lead to aching shoulders and neck strain. Through my somatic lens, I’ll show you how to distribute effort throughout your entire body, allowing your core to strengthen naturally as part of a whole-body symphony.

In this 30-minute somatic pilates session, you will:

Learn to move with ease rather than force.

Widen participation across your body to reduce muscle over-recruitment.

Improve coordination and find your natural alignment.

Build sustainable core strength that feels good in your body.

Whether you’re new to Pilates or looking to rediscover it through a gentler, somatic approach, this class is for you. We start with total body awareness, ensuring every movement is easeful and effective.

If you enjoyed this somatic approach to strength, let me know in the comments! How did your body feel moving with ease today?

#beginnerpilates #corestrength #somatics