Yoga with Melissa

Restorative Yoga

In this one hour restorative yoga class for deep renewal we will take the time to gently repair your worn-out, overwhelmed, anxious and run-down body and stressed out minds. Using props such as blankets, blocks and bolsters we will support your body in gentle, long held restorative postures that are deeply calming to help release tension and renew your energy when you are experiencing depletion.

We live in a time of overwhelm, information overload, urgency and the struggle to have it all and do it all. The result is exhaustion, anxiety, insomnia and a lack of rest. Allow this restorative yoga class to offer you a space of deep relaxation and peace from the pressures and demands of your fast-paced life. An interlude of healing leisure and stillness to support you in regenerative healing and therapeutic rest.

Resource: The Way of Rest by Jeff Foster

Octocorals

by Melissa West

apprehension expands outwards

in ever diffuse unravelling

circles

unable to keep her progression

within the diseased

microbial loop

anxiety surges to the fragile

surface of her skin

like a toxic

bloom

ruptures in her delicate

marine ecosystem, securing

shakeable uncertainties

that crest

and the collectedness

of self-abandonment

takes root

in the watery

tomb

disillusioned by the depletion

of vitality

at the legs

of the pernicious

sea spiders

who drain the resources

with their distracting

sea-anemone

vampire tentacles

she plunges deep to the depths

of the ocean floor

to balance

and rebalance

among the elders of the

Octocorals

whose dark mysterious

symbolic ecosystems remain

linked

even in the afterlife

If you made it all the way to the end of the video, give yourself a thumbs up and put,

“I’m surfing deep into the stillness of the ocean”

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Thank you squeezed for my yoga clothing, Cornelia, Donna and Laraine for your donations.

Yin Yang Yoga

This 60 minute Yin Yang Full Body Stretch and Strength Yoga Class combines the best of yin yoga and hatha yoga. What is the difference between yin yoga and hatha yoga? Yin yoga is an advanced yoga practice practiced mostly on the floor where we allow time and gravity to do most of the work for us. The focus of yin yoga is the deeper, dense and less pliant connective tissues that wrap around the joints. By holding the poses for 3-5 minutes, allowing our muscles to be soft, we pull and pressurize the tissue to coax chi and blood through the joints allowing them to be more strong and mobile.

Hatha Yoga on the other hand focuses more on lengthening and strengthening the muscles. Ha means sun and tha means moon. Hatha yoga focuses on bringing balance to your body between those more active (ha) energies and restorative (tha) energies. Therefore you will often experience pose and counterpose in a hatha yoga class so that when you have exerted effort of worked one muscle, then you will rest or balance it by working the opposite muscle.

Yin Yang Yoga Sequence: Wide Knee Child´s Pose, Half Happy Baby Pose, Keyhole, Keyhole Twist, Toestand, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Plank Pose on Forearms, Samanasana or Equal Balancing Pose, Chair Pose or Utkatasana, Extended Side Angle Pose or Parsvakonasana, Dolphin Pose, Locust Pose or Salabhasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

In this Yin Yang Full Body Stretch and Strength Yoga Class we will focus first on coaxing chi and blood into the connective tissues that wrap around the hip joints. When we practice the yin portion of the class we want to remember the three principles of yin yoga.

* Find an appropriate edge. You want to feel sensation, but not have it be sensational. With any yoga you should never feel pain

* Resolve to be still. Any movement brings the pose back up into the muscles rather than keeping it deep within the connective tissues. It is that slow, gentle traction that allows us to access the deeper connective tissue

* Stay for awhile. When we hold the pose for 3-5 minutes we allow time and gravity to do all the work. Remember time is more effective than tension.

In the hatha portion of this yoga class we will be lifting our own body weight to build strength for your whole body, including your upper body strength, core strength, and lower body strength. Holding hatha yoga poses for longer and repetition of hatha yoga poses will also help to build strength.

Meditation

by Melissa West

passing through the gate to solitude

the noise of the wind swirls all around

settling in the ground of a different world

distraction still finds its way in

the doors opens to a gentle field

where time swells and thoughts dissipate

attention settles in the expanse of the lower belly

vastness and depth coalesce from beneath

silence unfolds in spacious openness

the waters have stilled and the

horizon goes on and on

breath seeps through the porousness

of my skin denying any sense

of boundedness

resting in the space beyond

all that comes and goes

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Yoga for Anxiety

This full length guided yoga nidra/sleep yoga for anxiety will help you let go of anxiety and stress to experience a deep inner peace and calm. Through the practice of yoga nidra we can surrender the ceaseless nature of the restless mind, let go of the accumulated tension in the body, stop, let go of controlling the uncontrollable and rest into our body's own well-being.

When we are caught up in a cycle of anxiety, we are often trying to do too much. We are caught in a cycle of doing, doing, doing. It is excessive urgency. We feel like we have to control everything and manage everything by doing. To control the anxiety we just try to do more.

Through yoga nidra your body and mind will be led into a relaxation response and excess stress hormones such as cortisol are removed from the system. Your muscles relax, your heart slows down, your breath deepens. Your body releases GABA which is calming, as well as melatonin and serotonin. Yoga nidra restores the parasympathetic nervous system balance, reversing the tendency to move into anxiety under stress.

When we are caught up in a cycle of anxiety, we are often trying to do too much. We are caught in a cycle of doing, doing, doing. It is excessive urgency

We feel like we have to control everything and manage everything by doing. To control the anxiety we just try to do more. We think that one day we will find peace and relaxation, but in truth that day will never come.

During yoga nidra your body goes into a relaxation response and excess stress hormones such as cortisol are removed from the system. Your muscles relax, your heart slows down, your breath deepens. Your body releases GABA which is calming, as well as melatonin and serotonin. Yoga nidra restores the parasympathetic nervous system balance, reversing the tendency to move into anxiety under stress.

Acknowledge yourself for letting go of doing and controlling and opening into a practice that allows your body to release hormones that naturally including: GABA which will naturally relaxes your central nervous system, serotonin which increases neurotransmitters in your brain to help improve mood, and of melatonin which can help you fall asleep more quickly and get deeper sleep.

When you take the time out for yoga nidra for yourself, you serve all those in your indeed your entire life and beyond. Notice how this practice echoes throughout the rest of your day and night.

Namaste, Melissa

Member Only Yoga Nidra Audio Downloads:

Yoga Nidra for Anxiety Audio Download 30 mins

Yoga Nidra Audio Downloads (more than 10 available as of May, 2018)

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Yoga for Bedtime

Often we are working, doing household tasks, watching tv, scanning social media or staring at screens right up until we put our heads on our pillows. It is common to feel like you do not have time to unwind in the evenings. However, to go into deep sleep, taking time before bed to decelerate from your day is imperative. This class asks you to let go of the incessant stimulation and activity of your day that often follows you right into your bed.

Restorative yoga can help prepare your body and mind so that you can fall asleep easily and sleep deeply. When we practice restorative yoga at bedtime, we are teaching our mind and body how to rest. Instead of going over all the things that we have to do, our appointments, the things we fear we will forget, the things that have happened throughout the day, the conversations we had, we learn a different way.

With restorative yoga for bedtime we learn how to come into our body and let go into the physical sensations of our body. Additionally we breathe deeply into our belly brain, a space that is far away from the thinking mind. When we take time to engage in practices like restorative yoga for bedtime, we increase our ability to get restful, restorative sleep and decrease feelings of tiredness and irritability the next morning.

Slowing down the body as we do in restorative yoga signals the parasympathetic nervous system, which favours sleep. Many times sleep eludes us because we do not slow the body down enough to enter the relaxed alpha brainwave states that precede sleep. When we practice restorative yoga we reduce cortisol levels, lowering stress, which allows your body to move into relaxation and then sleep.

When we let go of all the evening distractions we can draw our attention inwards. We can slow and deepen our breath. You will notice that your anxiety will diminish and that there is a quieting effect. Let this practice of restorative yoga for bedtime be restful and spacious. Dim the lights, turn off as many electronics as possible and simulate dusk. Draw your attention back from the scattered activity of daytime concerns, inward to the quiet focus on night.

As my favourite expert on sleep Rubin Naiman says, “falling asleep is a gradual process that begins long before bedtime.” Let yourself settle down gradually with the sun. Let yourself slowly descend the way darkness gradually covers the night sky. Restorative yoga for bedtime can be a gentle, progressive release of the day.

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Hips & Shoulders

When we practice yin yoga we are getting into the deeper connective tissue or fascia of the body. Fascia is the connective tissue that surrounds all the structures of your body, like a web, from your head to your toes. There are three kinds of fascia: superficial (the kind that surrounds your face, your neck, your sternum), visceral fascia (the kind that surround your organs) and deep fascia.

Deep fascia is the tough fibrous connective tissue that surrounds your muscles.This is the kind of fascia or connective tissue that we are affecting when we practice yin yoga. Deep fascia contains many sensory receptors that communicate pain, proprioception and other feedback to your brain.

Every muscle in your body is wrapped in multiple directions by fascia. Biomechanically your hips and shoulders are connected. Fascia connects your shoulders and pelvis through something called a myofascial sling.

If you are visual just have a look at the image on the screen. I will explain the fascial connections between the hips and shoulders that we will address in this yin yoga class today, however I think appreciating the myofascial sling is enough to sense the connection between your hips and your shoulders as well.

From Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers

Your hamstrings start from your tibia and insert into your ischial tuberosity. This continues along as the sacro-tuberos ligament and then through the toraco-lumbar fascia. The sling continues to the latissumus dorsi, which then inserts into the opposite scapula and humerus. All of this to say, if you experience shoulder pain, it can be helpful to release the fascia of the hamstrings, hips, and mid back to affect the myofascial sling.

When we respect the deep fascia and the way they surround our muscles, the stiff, painful muscles that we experience can become less stiff and painful. And in a yin class like today, you can experience how pulling and pressurizing the tissue of the hamstrings and hips can help to release tension, stiffness and pain in the shoulders.

cranium

by Melissa West

reclining in corpse pose

the cranium rests on the earth, gradually

expanding and contracting on the ebb

and flow of breath

the leisurely creeping motion, descends

downward to the ocean bed, sinking

deeper into the mantle, seafloor

spreading

the tectonic plates of the cranium, begin

their continental drift

the thick crust of the lithosphere, giving up

their convergent boundaries, one plate moving

under another

material is lost --

carried down the mantle, while the formation

of a new oceanic floor, along divergent

margins is spreading

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Yin Yang Yoga

Yin yoga is slow, steady, stationary and focuses on surrendering to gravity with lots of floor poses. Yang yoga is mobile, it builds strength and it requires more muscular effort. There is no such thing as purely yin or purely yang, as each has elements of the other in them. In this class we are going to begin with 30 minutes of yin yoga while our muscles are cool so we can focus on our joints and bones, and then we will switch to 30 minutes of yang yoga and warm our muscles up.

From about our early thirties on, we enter into a more yin phase of our life and our tissues begin to dry up. The synovial fluid in our joints begins to lose its slipperiness. Joints cannot be enhanced in the same way as muscles. Since the most common injuries are in the hips knees, spine and shoulders - in other words the joints it is good to have an appropriate way to attend to them.

Joints do not respond to movement in the same way as muscles. The ligaments that connect the ends of bones together in order to form a joint are composed of dense fibrous tissue. This tissue contains only 6% fluid. These dense tissues or ligaments are not elastic.

Joints (ligaments) harden through injury or lack of use. This dense connective tissue, shrink wraps itself around the bone. Yin yoga helps to prevent joint rigidity and immobility. In order to nourish the joints we must be still, muscularly soft and let gravity have us. As soon as we move, the chi flows into the muscles.

Muscles are yang in nature and respond to rhythmic movement. Rhythmic movement increases the muscles fluid content and makes them more agile and strong. Did you know that muscles have 75% fluid content and that goes up to 90% fluid content with vigorous exercise.

Contracting and releasing your muscle combined with rest stimulates your body’s repair response. Your body responds by sending increased blood supply which carries nutrients to the stressed area.

Stimulating Yang chi moves the blood to an area which causes the area to become thicker, more mobile and easier to use.

Resource: Insight Yoga by Sarah Powers

Yin Yoga Sequence: Half Saddle Pose, Dragon Pose, Bananasana

Yang Yoga Sequence: Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Chair Pose or Utkatasana, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Locust Pose or Salabhasana, Down Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Dying Warrior, Savasana

Hip Openers are the Most Requested Classes in Yoga. Did you know there are over 20 muscles that cross the hip. Releasing your hips through yoga will help to decrease back pain and give you an overall ease of movement. So let’s get started!

Sleep Yoga

This full length yoga nidra for sleep guided meditation will help your body and mind to easily fall into a deep sleep. If you suffer from insomnia, yoga nidra is a wonderful practice to regenerate and re-balance. Yoga nidra is a powerful meditation to access deep restorative sleep that will allow your body and mind to come back to life and fully recharge your batteries. Yoga nidra sleep meditation prepares your body chemistry for sleep. Yoga nidra increases the release of melatonin and slows its release in your body allowing you to experience more sleep cycles in the night. If you experience insomnia or stress and anxiety during sleep time hours, know that yoga nidra for sleep is an effective way to teach your body to enter into a parasympathetic response of rest and digest, let go of the worries of the day and the next day and be able to enter into a deep and restful sleep.

The guided verbal instructions will lead you to a state of consciousness that are somewhere between waking, dreaming and sleeping. In order to practice yoga nidra you want to be as comfortable as possible. You can practice it on a yoga mat, but you could also practice it in bed, on the couch or in a chair. You are going to be here for 20 minutes, so it is a good idea to have some padding underneath you and a blanket overtop of you in case you get cool. You might want to have a pillow under your head so that your chin is slightly lower than your forehead. This will allow you to access your parasympathetic nervous system - your rest and digest. Using and eye pillow or covering your eyes will allow your eyes to relax.

When you practice yoga nidra there is no way you can do it wrong. Let go of trying to do it right. You don’t need to try to stay awake or to try to have a deep experience. You may even fall asleep and that is not a problem. Should you feel discomfort or resistance to your practice, know that it is not unusual. If physical discomfort or pain persists feel free to adjust your position to become more comfortable. Distractions are often a good way to come back to our practice. Remember, you are always free to step away from your yoga nidra practice at anytime if it becomes overwhelming. If at anytime, the words of the guided meditation do not work for you, let them go, and be with the guidance of your own inner teacher, it always knows best.

Our members get exclusive access to our yoga nidra audio download files first. They have had this yoga nidra for the past two weeks.

Links to audio downloads yoga nidra for sleep and 10 other yoga nidras are below as well as a link to become a member to get exclusive access to these audio download files.

Thanks to Dusky Leaf for my props, today you are going to need: 2 blankets,bolster, eye pillow.

Member Only Yoga Nidra Audio Downloads:

Yoga Nidra for Sleep Audio Download 23 mins - Click Here

Yoga Nidra Audio Downloads (10 available as of April 2, 2018) - Click Here

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Related Videos:

7 days to better sleep with yoga

https://www.melissawest.com/sleep/

Yoga Nidra Full Class

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

Yin Yoga for Sleep Full Class

https://youtu.be/AzNwjsSyHHo

Short Videos about Yoga Nidra

https://youtu.be/saPGPmxtoQ8

Golden Milk Video

https://youtu.be/oOzr0rFxXiM

Deep Sleep

Do you find you are so worried about the anxieties of the next day that you have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep? In the rest of this restorative yoga class for sleep we are going to enter into a kinship with sleep with a reverence that allows us to let go of the thinking mind and doing body. Join me.

Rubin Naiman says, Too often we ¨dash through sleep to get to the next morning´s awakening. Are we reflexively fixating on the shoreline of tomorrow morning's awakening, or will we allow ourselves to descend deeply into the sea of sleep?¨ he asks. ¨To descend deeply into the sweet waters of sleep, we must stop focusing on the shoreline of tomorrow morning's awakening.¨ Rubin Naiman

¨As useful as thinking is in our waking life, it inhibits sleep just as light inhibits nights. And just as we can walk along the water's edge, but cannot walk in deep water, we can think our way to the brink of slumber, but not directly into deeper sleep.... The actual transition into sleep requires willingness to let go of thinking.¨ Rubin Naiman

Let go of all the senses that track and scan your waking world. Open your internal senses, the ones that can see in the dark, Awaken your nighttime consciousness. The natural world of darkness and shadows where sleep is in its natural habitat.

Each night you enter into a sacred retreat from your day. Sleep is a respite. A sabbatical from your waking life. When darkness falls, you are given liberty to take leave from your responsibilities and withdraw from the flow of life. It is here you can find the restorative healing of deep stillness, the surrender of sleep.

We can enter into our relationship with sleep with reverence and sacred ceremony. It is an inner development, a kinship with sleep so that our thoughts can slow down, our body can release its tension, our emotions can unravel, we can meet our exhaustion and open to the mystery of spirit. This is a meaningful time when we listen like a true friend to the exhaustion of our body and need for rest. Our inner companion of sleep allows us to let go of the distractions of the waking world and surrender to bone deep fatigue.

Through sleep we meet the dark cave of night in our inner bodies. In sleep we welcome the magic of the inner well. The primordial womb from which our life force is birthed. When we withdraw from the forward trajectory of the waking world we enter into an alchemical world where refuge and rest are the birthplace of vitality.

Through sleep there is an offering. In surrendering to this gift which is freely given each night we unfold into rest and rejuvenation, healing and calmness, stillness and tranquility. Quiet from the activity of the day. Drift down into the waters of deep sleep and receive the gift of renewal.

Inspired by Rubin Naiman´s Hush

Poem:

for the love of sleep

by Melissa West

there is a greater world

that draws me home

each night

slowing down into this nightly retreat

I welcome the release of excessive wakefulness

relinquishing the day and all it's doing

I fall headlong

into the softness

of its embrace

surrendering to the sacred nourishment

that befriends me

as darkness descends

unraveling into the stillness

of the ocean's depth

healing respite is generously offered

under the receptive blanket

of the grace of night

Yoga for Neck and Shoulders

In this beginner hatha yoga for your neck and shoulder pain Dr. Melissa West will lead you through a simple beginner yoga routine of stretches for neck and shoulder pain.

This full length 60 minute yoga class includes safe and easy stretches for beginners.

So if you are experiencing neck and shoulder pain, whether it is from spending hours hunched over computer screens and keyboards at an office or standing all day performing repetitive tasks, this yoga for stiff neck and shoulders if the perfect beginner yoga routine for you.

Moving slowly with step by step instructions and with loads of modifications and options Melissa will share with you her simple yoga for beginners, plus a fun chance to do the chicken dance.

Yoga with Dr. Melissa West offers Real Yoga for Real People every Friday at 9 am PT.

When you subscribe and press the bell you will get some full length 60 min yoga classes coming into your YouTube subscription feed.

In the next couple of weeks you can expect a Live Restorative Yoga Class for Sleep and a Yin Yang Full Class.

Dr. Melissa West, from Victoria B.C. Canada has been releasing an hour long video every Friday on her YouTube channel since 2009.

She specializes in helping you let go of all the tension, anxiety and stress in your life through yin yoga, restorative yoga, hatha yoga and yoga nidra/sleep yoga.

If you are seeking to soften from the burdens of everyday life, then you are in the right place. With over 50 beginner yoga classes this is a fabulous place to begin your practice of yoga.

7 days of the Best Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga and Short Yoga Videos for your Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders

Neck and Shoulder Pain Relief

In yin yoga, when we pull and pressurize our connective tissues by putting our bodies into yin yoga postures, we stimulate the flow of energy along meridian pathways. This allows the flow of chi to be strong and mobile. The belief is that it is through the connective tissue that the chi is being moved along the meridian pathways. When we practice yin yoga, we remove the blockages of chi stagnation and increase the flow of chi. One of the main sites of chi stagnation in our bodies are the joints. This probably comes as no surprise to you because the joints are a common area for injury and pain in our human body.

Today we are focusing on our shoulders and neck. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, when there is not enough qi and blood flow in an area, there is an imbalance between yin and yang. This stagnation of energy causes pain. When chi and blood flow freely in the body, there is no pain. However when it becomes inhibited in sites like the shoulders and neck, we experience pain.

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine there are different kinds of pain that result from different causes of qi and blood flow problems. The pain that we experience in our upper back, our shoulders and neck in particular are often caused by interior heat which rises through the meridian channels and get stuck in the neck, shoulders and head causing tension in the muscles.

When we practice yin yoga, we come into the shape, remembering this is not an aesthetic practice and find an appropriate edge. We want sensation, but we don´t want it to be sensational. When finding an appropriate edge we can reflect on our intention to keep allow for the smooth flow of chi in our body to avoid chi stagnation and pain. A too strong edge or pushing too hard in your yin yoga pose can block the flow of chi and actually be counterproductive to your objective of lessening pain in your shoulders and neck.

Secondly when we practice yin yoga we stay for longer in order to affect the deeper connective tissues which are more dense and less pliant than muscle. Slow, long held traction of dense and less pliant tissues that wrap around the joints helps to coax chi and blood through these dense and less pliant tissues. This in turn helps to reduce pain.

Finally we soften our muscles and become still. Again, if our muscles are stiff or activated then it is difficult to get into the deeper connective tissue and chi and blood will remain stagnant. When we become still and soften our muscles we create a clear pathway for chi and blood to flow through our body, pain can be relieved and vitality restored.