Yoga with Melissa

30 Minute Purification Yoga Flow

This 30 minute yoga flow class includes classic hatha yoga, hatha yoga twists and qigong inspired influences including swimming dragon to clear your mind and purify your body to experience your radiance.

Over the next several weeks our yoga practice is going to be inspired by Lorin Roche’s translation of the Radiance Sutras. I highly recommend you purchase this book. The radiance sutras are 112 techniques for enlightenment through everyday lived experience. Each of the sutras is a way of attending to the divine energy that is always flowing through us and of which we are made. It is a conversation between the God and Goddess, Shiva and Shakti. They are the divine masculine and feminine, inseparable partners and their favourite dwelling place is in the human heart.

As we take time to immerse ourselves in these sutras over the next several weeks our bodies, minds, emotions, energy and spirit will awaken to the sacred that permeates our entire being. It is important to note that the radiance sutras are not a to do list or a manual or a how to, but is a relationship that will emerge between your Self and your Lived Experience.

As we delve into the sutras you will hear that they are playful and exploratory. They are meant to be explored by your sense perceptions. Allow yourself to be lighthearted as you open yourself to this divine exploration. Be serious about taking yourself lightly as my friend Anita Goa says. Lorin Roche says, “Through play, find your way, freedom, revelation, illumination.” He suggests that this text will open you to being at home in the universe, “to bring radical acceptance to every intense experience, ever sensual delight, every ordinary moment, as a gateway into deep and intimate contact with the forces of life.” So without further ado, let’s go “deeply into experience, embracing it fully without reservation.”

30 min Yoga Breathing Exercises For Stress

This 30 minute hatha yoga class will open your body to breath. We will focus on releasing your spine in twists and sidebends to open your body to deeper and more organic breathing patterns.

Over the next several weeks our yoga practice is going to be inspired by Lorin Roche’s translation of the Radiance Sutras. I highly recommend you purchase this book. The radiance sutras are 112 techniques for enlightenment through everyday lived experience. Each of the sutras is a way of attending to the divine energy that is always flowing through us and of which we are made. It is a conversation between the God and Goddess, Shiva and Shakti. They are the divine masculine and feminine, inseparable partners and their favourite dwelling place is in the human heart.

As we take time to immerse ourselves in these sutras over the next several weeks our bodies, minds, emotions, energy and spirit will awaken to the sacred that permeates our entire being. It is important to note that the radiance sutras are not a to do list or a manual or a how to, but is a relationship that will emerge between your Self and your Lived Experience.

As we delve into the sutras you will hear that they are playful and exploratory. They are meant to be explored by your sense perceptions. Allow yourself to be lighthearted as you open yourself to this divine exploration. Be serious about taking yourself lightly as my friend Anita Goa says. Lorin Roche says, “Through play, find your way, freedom, revelation, illumination.” He suggests that this text will open you to being at home in the universe, “to bring radical acceptance to every intense experience, ever sensual delight, every ordinary moment, as a gateway into deep and intimate contact with the forces of life.” So without further ado, let’s go “deeply into experience, embracing it fully without reservation.”

Yin Yoga for Unconditional Love

Are you ready for an unconditional love fest? This 60 minute yin yoga class will guide you through a journey of yin yoga complete with poetry and quotes to inspire the innate unconditional love within you. We will pull and pressurize the tissues of the heart meridian which run along the inside of your arms and the center of your torso throughout this class. Expect heart openers like supported fish pose, melting heart pose, and also seal or sphinx. However I will also include some twists to prepare us for these gentle backbends and to help us release from these gentle backbends including broken wing pose and reclined twist pose. We will bookend our practice with supported fish pose. We will also reflect on the principles of yin from the perspective of unconditional love. I will offer support and lots of choice for placing your attention during the five minute holds. Thank you for joining me for this yin yoga class for unconditional love, may it be of benefit to all beings.

Poetry by Antionio Machado, George Elliot Clarke and Robert Bly

Hatha Yoga

In this 30 minute hatha yoga class we will ask ourselves what it would be like to offer ourselves love without conditions, in other words, unconditional love. We will practice poses for our heart chakra, to open our chest and bring mobility to our shoulders. Our hatha yoga class will begin with a centering to bring awareness to the support of the earth, our breath and our body. Then we will focus on shoulder mobility and stability as well as thoracic mobility in cat pose.

When we begin to transition to our standing hatha yoga poses we will open up our hips, focus on hamstring flexibility and leg strength. Our standing postures today will include variations of parsvottanasana, triangle pose, half moon balancing pose and warrior two. These variations will focus on shoulder mobility and visualize centering our energy in our heart. When we return to seated we will practice a seated twist with a visualization that will clear our central channel to receive unconditional love. In savasana you will receive a short poem on love by Sri Nityananda

Yoga Nidra

Is it possible to love yourself in a way that is free from all conditions? Free from the striving and expectations. Are you running on the hampster wheel of feeling incomplete, searching for something outside of yourself, some achievement, some accolade, some experience, some relationship which will bring you to some future where you imagine you will be more loveable?

Do you judge yourself harshly when you make mistakes? Do you manipulate yourself into some kind of unachievable perfection? What would it be like to love yourself without conditions, completely and totally as you are without any expectations for the future or hoping you were different. Regardless of what you do or do not do, could you offer yourself that kind of love?

In this yoga nidra, we will circulate your awareness through your body. We will trace your awareness through the network of cells, tissues, and organs to improve the free flow of energy along the pathways for your body’s wellbeing. Imagine this like a meditative acupuncture treatment as you open your awareness into different parts of your body to mobilize your own innate unconditional love.

There will be no close out today so that you can be with your own experience

Be sure to give yourself that LIKE for taking the time for your yoga nidra

Leave the comment, ¨I offer myself unconditional love” in the comments.

If you would like my 7 days of yoga for sleep my best yoga, ayurveda, self massage and breath practices to fall asleep go to: melissawest.com/sleep put your email in and we will deliver that right to your inbox

I will put the direct link to the downloadable audio file for our members in the show notes and a link to become a member if you would like access to the downloadable file which is just the yoga nidra without any YouTube advertising or promotion, it starts right with the spoken guided yoga nidra that you can download onto your phones and devices to take it to bed with you so you can call right asleep.

Member Yoga Nidra for Unconditional Love Audio Download 30 mins

Link to become a member: Click here

Sign up here for 7 days to better sleep with yoga and I will send you 1 video a day for 7 days with the best of yoga, ayurveda, self massage and pranayama (or breath practices) to help you get the best night’s sleep.

 

Yoga Nidra Full Class

https://youtu.be/1cb-aRJTrDQ

Short Videos about Yoga Nidra

https://youtu.be/saPGPmxtoQ8

Yin Yoga

This 30 min yin class will pull and pressurize the tissues of the liver and gallbladder meridians and the urinary bladder meridians to support you in being easy with yourself during difficult times. Throughout the class we will review the principles of yin in an in depth way as an additional way of drawing in tools to go easy on ourselves. This yin yoga class will have five minute holds and will use props. You will need a blanket, a strap and a bolster.

Because of the kindness of your contributions we have been able to make these Yoga with Melissa classes available for the past ten years. Thank you for supporting us through our membership and donations.

Membership: Click Here

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Restorative Yoga

In this one hour restorative yoga class for self regulation I will teach what it means to find regulation and resilience in a time of uncertainty. Teaching from polyvagal theory we will cover ventral vagus activation, sympathetic mobilization and dorsal immobilization. Drawing on the teachings of Stphen Porges and Deb Dana, we will contemplate ways that we can savor and deepen the times that we are already in ventral vagus activation. We will ask ourselves how we can discharge energy when we are in sympathetic activation and how we can gently activate our energy when we are in dorsal immobilization.

The long held restorative yoga poses in this class are mostly prone (front facing) and super gentle on the nervous system. You will need a bolster, 2 blocks, blankets, and a meditation cushion.

This class is in preparation for our next 4 months which will focus on Ventral Vagus Activation: Safety, Connection and Resilience. in our membership community and in particular June 2020 in our membership community which will focus on Widening the Window. Our members will be receiving 5 new classes for ventral vagus activation at the beginning of June.

* Ventral Vagus Activation for Beginners

* Intermediate Ventral Vagus Activation with a 9” Inflatable Ball

* Ventral Vagus Play

* Qigong Inspired Ventral Vagal Yoga Flow

* Ventral Vagal Mudra Flow

Want to join us? Click Here

Hatha Yoga

Connect with your center with this 30 minute grounding hatha yoga class. This hathat yoga class will combine breath and hatha yoga asana to help you find your inner foundation. It will support you in letting for of restlessness and will return you to calm and centered ground, so that you can support yourself, your family and your community.

This class will combine grounding postures like bride pose and standing postures like tadasana, warrior one and goddess victory pose with grounding breath practices and movements to bring us back to the core of our body. Simple hand placement and breathing will emposer you to clear your mind, connect with your power and connect with your heart. May this hatha yoga class for grounding connect you to your center and be of benefit to all beings. Namaste, Melissa

These weekly classes are made possible by the generosity of our members and because of your donations. We are extremely grateful for your support in whatever way you feel inspired to reciprocate.

Free Goodies

Membership Info

Covid-19 Survival Playlist

Yin Yoga Classes

Staycation

Yoga for Joy

I saved one of the best classes of the whole 30 day beginner yoga challenge for last. Beginner yoga for joy is a super fun hand free, wrist free, kneeling free, prop free, and inversion free yoga class. There is happy baby pose, clapping and singing in warrior two, breath of joy, Goddess victory squat, a beautiful flow from standing and a gorgeous poem in savasana by Mary Oliver.

The poem is: Joy is Not Made to be a Crumb by Mary Oliver

You can do this class if you have never done a yoga class before in your life. I will give you slow, easy to follow, step-by-step instructions and tell you exactly how to get in and out of each and every pose. Detailed instructions will be given for even the most basic poses and how to breathe. You will be given lots of cues of how to pay attention to your body and where to feel the effects of the yoga poses. You do not have to be athletic, flexible, strong, balanced, skinny or coordinated to do this class. The slow, step-by-step instructions will give you the confidence to let go of your self-judgment and stay focused with commitment and motivation.

May this yoga class be of benefit to all beings.

Sign up for the 30 day beginner yoga challenge: Click Here

Remember Members Receive an Ad-Free Version of this 30 Day Challenge

Thank you for Subscribing and Sharing to Help us Reach our Goal of 100K Subscribers by our 11 year anniversary on YouTube.

Yoga for Abundance

The penultimate day of our 30 day beginner yoga challenge is a yoga class for abundance. All the beginner yoga poses in this class are hand free, wrist free, kneeling free, prop free, and inversion free. This is another one of my favourite classes in the series. You will feel like you are immersed in abundance in this class! The simple heart opening beginner yoga poses in this class will open you to your abundance in all forms, an abundance of love, material wealth, understanding, healing, connection, wisdom, any form of abundance your heart desires. Set your intention to receive, release the resistance and open to receive the abundance. Our poem today is ABUNDANCE by Amy Schmidt

You can do this class if you have never done a yoga class before in your life. I will give you slow, easy to follow, step-by-step instructions and tell you exactly how to get in and out of each and every pose. Detailed instructions will be given for even the most basic poses and how to breathe. You will be given lots of cues of how to pay attention to your body and where to feel the effects of the yoga poses. You do not have to be athletic, flexible, strong, balanced, skinny or coordinated to do this class. The slow, step-by-step instructions will give you the confidence to let go of your self-judgment and stay focused with commitment and motivation.

May this yoga class be of benefit to all beings.

Sign up for the 30 day beginner yoga challenge: Click Here

Remember Members Receive an Ad-Free Version of this 30 Day Challenge

Thank you for Subscribing and Sharing to Help us Reach our Goal of 100K Subscribers by our 11 year anniversary on YouTube.