Yoga with Melissa

30 minute BEGINNER PILATES to Wake Up & Strengthen Your Core |YWM 746

Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership 

This beginner morning Pilates class is designed to wake you up and help you connect with your core in a way that feels grounded, kind, and sustainable. My intention is to make Pilates accessible for everyone, whether you’re new to it, rebuilding strength, or looking for a more mindful approach that honors your body’s limits. 

In my own experience, many real-life classes move too fast or expect you to already be strong enough to keep up. They’re often expensive, and lack modifications, so I find I end up with neck pain or even migraines. This class is my offering to bridge that gap so you can experience the benefits of Pilates without strain and I will slowly build while offering lots of modifications and options.

We’ll move gently through foundational Pilates exercises that engage your core, wake up your spine, and bring strength and mobility into your morning. You’ll build warmth from the inside out while staying connected to your breath and body. My aspiration is that this practice helps you feel stronger and more at home in your body, while also reminding you that accessible, high-quality movement doesn’t need to be expensive.

Yin Yoga for TIGHT HIPS | Yoga with Melissa 745 

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Meet the deep tension that gathers in your hips with this yin yoga class. Through long-held, floor-based poses, you’ll explore the principles of Yin Yoga: choosing an appropriate edge, softening, being still, and staying awhile. These four anchors guide your body to release resistance, deepen your breath and downshift your nervous system into safety. As the connective tissues around your hips, pelvis, and lower back begin to hydrate and unwind, space and ease naturally return to your movement and breath.

Energetically, the practice supports the smooth flow of Qi through the Liver, Gallbladder, and Kidney meridians that run through the hips and inner thighs. These pathways are linked with flexibility, emotional release, and grounded vitality.

This yin yoga for tight hips is designed to gently unwind deep-seated tension and restore mobility through the hips and pelvis. Invite your body to release long-held tightness in the fascia and connective tissues that surround the hip joints. The extended holds allow these tissues to rehydrate and regain elasticity, improving circulation, nourishing the joints, and expanding your natural range of motion.

Beyond the physical release, Yin Yoga supports your nervous system in shifting out of stress and into a state of deep rest. As your body settles, your parasympathetic response is activated, calming the mind and dissolving habitual guarding patterns. 

Poem: In the Quiet After by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Props: Blocks, Blanket, Bolster 

Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership

✉️ Receive emails from me ✉️  https://bit.ly/melissamail

Melt Away Stress | Cozy Restorative Yoga | YWM 744

Settle into deep calm with this cozy restorative yoga class designed to help you unwind and destress. Through gentle, supported postures and slow, steady breathing, you’ll soothe your nervous system and create space for ease. This class offers a soft landing for when life feels full, helping you release layers of tension, anxiety, and overwhelm while grounding back into the body’s natural rhythm of rest and repair.

As you linger in each pose, your body will begin to melt open, your mind will quiet, and your breath will lead you toward peace. This is your invitation to slow down, to reconnect with the quiet underneath the noise, and to experience true anxiety relief. Perfect for evenings or anytime you need a reset, this restorative practice helps you return to balance, supported, soothed, and deeply at ease.

Props Needed: bolster, block, chair

Poems:

Between the Lines by Jeff Foster (adapted)

Tree by Jane Hirschfield

Sitting in a Quiet Room by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

January by Betty Adcock

This ROOT CHAKRA VAGUS NERVE YOGA is SO nourishing 🌿 safety, calm + ease in your body | YWM 743

Full month vagus nerve + nervous system practices inside ➡️ https://melissawest.com/membership

When life feels like it’s rushing you forward and your body responds with tightening, bracing, and agitation, this Root Chakra Vagus Nerve Yoga practice will help you slow down and reconnect to safety. Fear, rushing, fixing, and the feeling of being wired or overstimulated are all signs of sympathetic activation in the nervous system. This class is designed for anyone who wants to shift out of fight-or-flight and back into calm, ease, and resourcing. If you struggle with anxiety, low back tension, digestive discomfort, or a constant scanning for “what’s wrong,” this practice will support you in softening those patterns and coming home to your body.

In this nourishing class we’ll connect the Root Chakra and Vagus Nerve through gentle movement, grounding awareness, and emotional regulation. Like the roots of a plant, your root chakra invites you to reach down into the ground for nourishment and stability. By pairing this with vagus nerve yoga you’ll invite your body into a state of calm where you can not only survive, but thrive. This practice is ideal for beginners and experienced students alike who want a safe, grounding, and resourcing yoga class. Join me, Melissa West, for this root chakra yoga for beginners, hatha yoga, and vagus nerve reset yoga to experience safety, calm, and ease in your body.

🌿 If you love this class, I’ve dedicated an entire month to the vagus nerve and nervous system inside our Revive and Thrive Incubator. You’ll find a full library of practices designed to restore balance, regulation, and resilience. Become a member today ➡️ https://melissawest.com/membership

Autumn Yoga Nidra | Yoga with Melissa 742 

Prepare to Conserve Your Energy this Autumn: https://melissawest.com/membership 

This Melissa West Yoga Nidra for Autumn is a 30-minute yoga nidra meditation created to help you align with the natural rhythm of the fall season. In autumn, nature turns inward light fades, leaves fall, and the season reminds us of impermanence and the preciousness of our human life. This autumn yoga nidra invites you to let go of busy-ness, productivity, and the weight of what no longer serves you. By releasing into stillness, you create space for renewal and conservation of energy, preparing for the deeper rest of winter. Whether you are searching for Melissa West Yoga Nidra for autumn sleep, fall yoga nidra, or yoga nidra for sleep, this practice will guide you into profound restoration.

As you rest, your nervous system is gently restored, your energy conserved, and your body attuned to the wisdom of the season. Allow yourself to be supported as you plant seeds of stillness and clarity that will carry you through the months ahead.

If you feel called to go deeper, our REST Incubator will support you in preparing to conserve your energy this autumn season, offering you a container of practices, guidance, and community: https://melissawest.com/membership

Already a member? This is the perfect season to take advantage of your REST incubator: https://www.members.melissawest.com/r-e-s-t-incubator/

GENTLE PILATES for BEGINNERS | At-home Mat Pilates (No Equipment) YWM 741

Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership 

Discover the foundations of Pilates in a way that is truly accessible for complete beginners. This gentle, mat-based class is designed to support your body and your nervous system, offering a calm and steady introduction you can return to anytime. With no equipment required, you’ll be guided step by step through simple movements that build strength and stability while keeping your body and mind at ease.

Together, we’ll explore five key principles of Pilates in a supportive way: awareness of sensation, guiding your movement with care, centering from your core, attunement to your body’s feedback, and breathing that feels natural and unforced. These principles create a safe, steady foundation so you can move with more clarity, confidence, and connection.

Post-Walk Yoga Stretch | Ideal for 10,000-Step Days | YWM 740

Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership

If you walk 10,000 steps a day, this beginner-friendly yoga for walkers class is the perfect way to recover, release tension, and keep your goal of walking 10 000 steps a day. This yoga for walking sequence includes walking stretches and walking stretching exercises designed specifically for after you walk. We’ll focus on walking stretches that relieve muscle soreness in your lower body and open your upper body for better posture. This class includes after walking stretches like a walking quad stretch, walking hamstring stretch, walking calf stretch, hip flexor release, glute and IT band stretches, plus simple myofascial release for your feet to care for your plantar fascia.

This walking stretching workout supports the muscles most active during walking while also helping you stand with better posture. Alongside the lower body focus, you’ll open your chest and shoulders to counteract rounding from long walks or daily posture habits. If you’re looking for walker’s stretch to support a 10,000 steps stretching session, or walking yoga for beginners, you’ll find this routine will help with those sore muscles. Practice it after walking to keep your 10, 000 step walking routine sustainable.

In this class, I introduce some MFR (myofascial release) techniques, and inside our membership community I go into much more depth with many more videos to support your connective tissue health.

Members can access all of these here: https://www.members.melissawest.com/connective-tissue-practices-2/

Not a member yet? Join here: https://melissawest.com/membership

Wake up your whole body and feel your best with this energizing morning yoga practice. In this class, you’ll move through a dynamic flow designed to open your hips, lengthen tight hamstrings, strengthen your core, and challenge your balance. You’ll also work on releasing tension from your upper back and shoulders, helping you start the day with more ease, freedom, and vitality. This well-rounded sequence combines strength, mobility, and mindful movement so you can feel both grounded and uplifted when you step off the mat.

This class is perfect for mornings when you want to boost circulation, improve posture, and bring your mind into sharp, present focus. Whether you’re easing into your day or preparing for a busy schedule ahead, the intentional combination of hip openers, balancing poses, and targeted strength work will leave you feeling centered, mobile, and strong. Grab a block, roll out your mat, and let’s practice together.

Poem: The Once Invisible Garden by Laura Foley

Props: Yoga Block and strap

Calming Vagus Nerve Yoga | Hatha into Yin Practice YWM 738

Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership

The intention behind this class is to start standing to down regulate your nervous system from a state of activation into a state of regulation so that you can be more comfortable being still. If you come to your yoga mat, especially a class where there is a lot of stillness like yin yoga or restorative yoga and you find a lot of restlessness, it is incredibly important to move that trapped or repressed energy through first before you become still. Then it will be more comfortable when you are still. 

This combination of hatha followed by yin gives the space to downregulate your nervous system, to release the excess energy that wants to fight or run away to prepare you to become still. So we will start standing with standing postures that release excess energetic tension from the body and gradually make our way to some seated yin yoga poses to be more comfortable in stillness. This is a great practice to release the day, at the end of the day to prepare for bed so you can make that gradual transition from alert and maybe even buzzy to prepare your body to relax, rest and restore through sleep. 

Props Needed: Yoga Strap, blanket

Poem: The Crystal Gazer by Sarah Teasdale 

We have 22 vagus nerve classes in our membership designed to navigate regulating your nervous system with yoga. 

Here’s a link for members: https://www.members.melissawest.com/courses/ventral-vagus-activation/ 

Here’s a link to become a member:  ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership

Restorative Yoga When Sick 🤧| Yoga with Melissa 737

This restorative yoga class is designed for when you're under the weather, whether it’s a cold like I have or your immune system is struggling. Every pose is supported to help ease congestion and exhaustion, with your head elevated to reduce sinus pressure and gentle postures that encourage lymphatic drainage in the armpits and groin.

Throughout the practice, you'll be guided by the poetry of Jeff Foster, his words offer a kind of presence that meets your illness with softness rather than resistance. This class will give you the  permission to rest rather than feel any need to push through. 

Yoga for Immunity Videos on YouTube

Best Video to Prevent Illness Before You Get Sick – Immunity Boost

This class is designed to support your immune system by activating your thymus, spleen, and lymphatic pathways while strengthening your energetic boundaries. You’ll finish the class feeling more resilient and grounded.

🔗 Members: Click Here

Best Yoga Videos Once You Are Sick

Yoga for Recuperation Series:

Restorative Yoga for Illness Acceptance – 36 mins

Yoga Nidra for Healing – 32 mins (member favourite)

Yoga for your Spleen – 25 mins

Yoga for your Thymus and Tonsils – 23 mins

🔗 Members: Click Here

I also love our lymphatic massage videos for prevention and recovery: 

🔗 Members: Click Here

🧘‍♀️ Become a Member:

https://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/