Yoga with Melissa

This restorative yoga class combines restorative yoga postures including reclined bound angle pose and simple, easy reclined flowing yoga poses to connect with our divine feminine energy and in particular our womb wisdom. Regardless of whether you have a womb or not, we can all connect with our womb wisdom.

Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series, we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy.

Through our wombs we can explore, express, release and reveal any emotions that have been lurking underneath, waiting to be seen. Anything unfelt, ignored, denied or avoided will arise so you can access your true self.

We actually try to avoid unpleasant and overwhelming feelings by blocking them out and other coping strategies. But, it takes more effort to keep the pain at bay than to express it. When we contract our bodies, hold our breath, this constricting and holding, protecting creates tension in our bodies, locks up life force energy and we resist the very emotions that might liberate us. Emotional stress is often felt in the digestive system as well. We we fully feel these emotions and let them travel through us, we will feel empowered, sustained energy, a sense of wholeness and integrity. When we soothe ourselves and heal our emotions we can surrender and feel content.

If you would like an infographic of the qualities of the divine masculine and feminine in balance go to: melissawest.com/balance

Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series, we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy.

In our wounded state, we may get triggered by an outside experience or person. The wounded masculine may feel: competitive, controlling, aggressive, withdrawing, intimidating or defensive. When we heal our emotional wounds and traumas, we are able to be present and compassionate with ourselves in difficult and triggering situations. Then the divine masculine is: supportive, present, focused, holds space, assertive, resilient, protects boundaries, lets go of judgment and centered.

Poem: Witness by Denise Levertov

The push to hustle and grind is burning out the Divine feminine energy. We know our inner feminine is imbalanced when we experience ourselves pushing to be more productive and trying to make things happen. This leaves the feminine feeling tired and worn out. Perhaps you are feeling caught up in comparison and no longer feel like you can trust the mysterious unfolding of your life. This tension shows up as mistrust in your physical body, pain, and lack of self love and self nourishment. This yoga nidra will activate your Goddess energy to be release the wounded feminine.

Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better!

The feminine waters are restored through slowing down, rest, focusing internally and receiving nourishing energy. In short, by being rather than doing. This healing yoga nidra will soften and unwind the unconscious programming that the feminine could ever find their worth in productivity and allow you to unravel into deep restoration. Step into the healing powers of your Divine intuition with this divine feminine sleep meditation.

Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy.

The wounded masculine is withdrawn, avoidant, and unstable. We experience the wounded masculine when we are disconnected from our feelings, abandoning ourselves when we are stressed, anxious, depressed, dysregulated. When we heal our inner divine masculine we are fully present for ourselves, no matter what is happening in our lives, with non-abandoning attention, with loving kindness and without judgment. We are our own biggest supporters. We protect our physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual bodies. We are literally devoted to their well-being. Our inner divine masculine offers us the stability and security we have been longing for. Restorative yoga is the perfect yoga to activate your divine inner masculine because your body is fully supported by the props, the ground and the wall.

This gorgeous yoga nidra meditation will support you in surrendering into sacred space. It is a beautiful yoga nidra meditation that you can practice to start your day so that you inhabit your day with devotion and sacred attention. You may choose to practice in the early afternoon to support your digestion. You may choose to practice in the evening to support your sacred sleep.

The yoga nidra meditation invites you into the sacred space of your body with poetry by Jeff Foster and beautiful quotes by John O’Donohue. Through breath and gently easing your awareness into your body and the sacred space all around you, I will guide you through conscious circulation through your body, contemplation of opposites and finally dropping into the liminal space of yoga nidra.

May this practice support you in letting go into divine and sacred rest.

This 15 minute Morning Qigong Yoga Fusion reminds us that we can wake up each morning and that we do not have to earn love or acceptance. We do not have to receive from anybody else. We are already receiving from life before we even get out of bed in the morning.

We begin this gratitude qigong yoga fusion by cultivating gratitude energy through the meridian lines, the door of life and the sense organs. Every moment that you are alive, this life has been given to you. When we practice qigong we can feel our life force moving through our body.

After generating the energy of gratitude we release all the assumptions, expectations, comparison, jealousy, scarcity, and entitlement that gets in the way of us experiencing gratitude with qigong purging movements.

Finally we will circulate the energy of gratitude with heart-centered flows.

Allowing Inner Joy Yin Yoga

In this 30 minute yin yoga class we will open your heart to allow inner joy by pulling and pressurizing the tissues of the heart and small intestine meridians. This yin yoga class is a great chest opener for the heart chakra. You will not need any props for this yin yoga class.

Yin Yoga Sequence to Allow Inner Joy

Bananasana 5 mins

Sphinx Pose

Thread the Needle

Sphinx Pose

Thread the Needle

Seal

Savasana 5 mins

(All holds are 2 mins except where noted)

Yoga Nidra for Inner Joy

Inner joy is a spontaneous upwelling that arises when we are rested, and our minds are quiet and spacious. Through yoga nidra we can sink deeply into our unconditional hearts and become absorbed by our inner joy over time.

Practices like yoga nidra are a quiet act of opposition that let go of the external demands of striving and achieving and advocate for a resting of our minds, bodies, and spirits. When we let go of the struggle to achieve happiness outside of ourselves, inner joy is a wellspring that naturally becomes our more frequent companion. When we are no longer seeking happiness through doing more, achieving more, and accumulating more, we can relax and be saturated in the joy that is right here right now when it chooses to grace us with its presence.

Members I have an audio download in our membership that you can listen to absolutely anytime and anywhere in your earbuds.

10 min Morning Yoga

In July I will support our members in sympathetic joy with our monthly calendars, daily yoga connection, and live yin class on sympathetic joy. We have something super special coming up in August so be sure to subscribe.

This quick 10 minute morning hatha yoga stretch and flow will leave you full of joy. We will start lying on our mats and release our necks with 10 Tigers Running Through the Forest, which will leave our necks and our scalps so happy! From there we will focus on keeping our guts happy with knee to chest pose.

When we come to kneeling we will release our spines and open up our hearts with some flexion, extension, sidebending and backbending in cat pose and gate pose. This will leave our spines happy and joyful.

In lunge pose we will focus on happy hips by parting yin and yang and further releasing our spine and psoas.

When we come to standing we will do some shoulder flossing with a yoga strap, breath of joy and dancer pose. All these poses will leave you full of joy.

We will round out our practice with easy twist, circulating our joy with fountain pose.

Remember to subscribe to the channel because I have something super exciting coming for you in August!

Morning Yoga Qigong Fusion

In July I will support our members in sympathetic joy with our monthly calendars, daily yoga connection, and live yin class on sympathetic joy. We have something super special coming up in August so be sure to subscribe.

This qigong yoga fusion flow will begin with cultivating the energy with a heart massage and getting the energy flowing through the heart and small intestine meridians.

From there we will move into warrior one pose to do prayer wings to warm up our spine and open our hearts to joy even further.

We will cleanse and release stagnant energy with arm swings in chair pose and come into tadasana to circle the radiant joy with a joy facial. Stepping back into warrior one, we will part the clouds to clear the way for radiant joy.

In Goddess Victory Squat we will circulate joy with cloud hands to calm our mind and clear our emotions. The lotus flow will continue to circulate the joy through our bodies and radiate joy out into the world. Big Bear Circulates the moon together with chair pose, allows us to circulate the joy that we have cultivated in the class.

We will finish our class by gathering and storing our radiant joy for our day.