Yoga with Melissa

Tree Medicine

Difficulties can be the source of our deepest wisdom, patience, balance and compassion. My teacher’s teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche says the spiritual progress from the ego’s point of view is one insult after another.

Normally when challenges, mistakes, difficulties arise in our life we feel blame, frustration or a sense of failure, we try to get over our feelings and get rid of them as soon as possible to get back to life as usual, our more pleasant experience.

Usually in our lives when difficulties arise, we project our frustration onto them, as if it is something outside of ourselves, our relationships, our living circumstances, our work, the world outside of us that is the source of our discomfort. We think that if we can change our circumstances then we will be happy. But it is not in changing our circumstances that we will be happy, but in our relationship to them.

Instead we can take our difficulties and turn them into our medicine. We take our struggles and they become the remedy of patience and compassion towards greater and greater freedom as we come to know our True Self. Our greatest elixir for growth is often what will bring us face to face with our strongest limitations and difficulties.

We all face difficulty in our lives. Challenges in relationships, problems at work, pain illness and injury, loss of those we love, sometimes it is our own depression, anxiety, fear and addictions.

Today I am going to share Jack Kornfield’s story of a poisoned tree. On first discovering a poisoned tree which is a metaphor for the difficulties in our lives, some people only see its danger. Their immediate response is to cut it down and get rid of it before anybody is hurt. This is not any different from the normal response to aggression, compulsion, greed and fear that arises within us when we are faced with anxiety, depression, loss, conflict or sadness in ourselves and others. Our initial response is to get rid of the problem.

Perhaps your response upon discovering the poisoned tree is not aversion, but compassion. Your response may not be to cut it down, but instead of judging it you decide to build a fence around it so that others are not poisoned and the tree may also still have its life. This is a shift from judgment and fear to compassion.

Jack Kornfield suggests there is a third kind of response to the poisonous tree. This person sees the poisonous tree as exactly what they were looking for and picks the fruit. They investigate the properties of the poisonous fruit, mix it with other ingredients and use the poison as a medicine to heal the sick and transform the suffering of the world. This person sees value in the most difficult circumstances.

Jack Kornfield asks, what spirit of freedom, compassion or understanding is yet to be found in the midst of the difficulties of your life? With respectful attention what can you willingly learn from the difficulty that is present in your life?

Resource: Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

Yoga Postures or Asanas: Reclined Bound Angle Pose or Supta Baddha Konasana, Reclined Side Bend or Supta Ardha Chandrasana, Side Plank or Vasisthasana, Plank or Kumbhakasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Tree Pose or Vrksasana, Warrior Three or Virabhadrasana Three, Uttanasana or Standing Forward Fold, Janu Sirsasana or Head beyond knee pose, savasana or corpse pose, anahata chakra mudra

Props Needed: 2 blocks, bolster, meditation cushion

Thank you so much for your donations: Cornelia, Donna, Hilary, Sonja, Diane, Zaneta, Donna, Sharon F, Sean, Anne-Marie, hanna, Peige, Hannah - these are one time and monthly donations to YWM

Tree Medicine Difficulties can be the source of our deepest wisdom, patience, balance and compassion. My teacher’s teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche says the spiritual progress from the ego’s point of view is one insult after another. Normally when challenges, mistakes, difficulties arise in our life we feel blame, frustration or a sense of failure, we […]

Tree Medicine

Difficulties can be the source of our deepest wisdom, patience, balance and compassion. My teacher’s teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche says the spiritual progress from the ego’s point of view is one insult after another.

Normally when challenges, mistakes, difficulties arise in our life we feel blame, frustration or a sense of failure, we try to get over our feelings and get rid of them as soon as possible to get back to life as usual, our more pleasant experience.

Usually in our lives when difficulties arise, we project our frustration onto them, as if it is something outside of ourselves, our relationships, our living circumstances, our work, the world outside of us that is the source of our discomfort. We think that if we can change our circumstances then we will be happy. But it is not in changing our circumstances that we will be happy, but in our relationship to them.

Instead we can take our difficulties and turn them into our medicine. We take our struggles and they become the remedy of patience and compassion towards greater and greater freedom as we come to know our True Self. Our greatest elixir for growth is often what will bring us face to face with our strongest limitations and difficulties.

We all face difficulty in our lives. Challenges in relationships, problems at work, pain illness and injury, loss of those we love, sometimes it is our own depression, anxiety, fear and addictions.

Today I am going to share Jack Kornfield’s story of a poisoned tree. On first discovering a poisoned tree which is a metaphor for the difficulties in our lives, some people only see its danger. Their immediate response is to cut it down and get rid of it before anybody is hurt. This is not any different from the normal response to aggression, compulsion, greed and fear that arises within us when we are faced with anxiety, depression, loss, conflict or sadness in ourselves and others. Our initial response is to get rid of the problem.

Perhaps your response upon discovering the poisoned tree is not aversion, but compassion. Your response may not be to cut it down, but instead of judging it you decide to build a fence around it so that others are not poisoned and the tree may also still have its life. This is a shift from judgment and fear to compassion.

Jack Kornfield suggests there is a third kind of response to the poisonous tree. This person sees the poisonous tree as exactly what they were looking for and picks the fruit. They investigate the properties of the poisonous fruit, mix it with other ingredients and use the poison as a medicine to heal the sick and transform the suffering of the world. This person sees value in the most difficult circumstances.

Jack Kornfield asks, what spirit of freedom, compassion or understanding is yet to be found in the midst of the difficulties of your life? With respectful attention what can you willingly learn from the difficulty that is present in your life?

Resource: Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

Yoga Postures or Asanas: Reclined Bound Angle Pose or Supta Baddha Konasana, Reclined Side Bend or Supta Ardha Chandrasana, Side Plank or Vasisthasana, Plank or Kumbhakasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Tree Pose or Vrksasana, Warrior Three or Virabhadrasana Three, Uttanasana or Standing Forward Fold, Janu Sirsasana or Head beyond knee pose, savasana or corpse pose, anahata chakra mudra

Props Needed: 2 blocks, bolster, meditation cushion

Thank you so much for your donations: Cornelia, Donna, Hilary, Sonja, Diane, Zaneta, Donna, Sharon F, Sean, Anne-Marie, hanna, Peige,

Chair Yoga Class with Sherry

Today we have a special guest on Yoga with Melissa

Sherry Zak Morris from YogaJP

Visit her website here

Subscribe to her Channel here

No matter what is going on in your life right now, you can always find time to feel the Joy and Gratitude of being alive. Even with our aches, pains, worries and frets we can give ourselves permission to walk on the Sunny Side of Life and appreciate all that we have.

Sherry leads this Energizing Chair Yoga class with a group of senior citizens who happily and joyfully move, dance and smile while celebrating the NOW. Join us! You'll be glad you did!

("Life can be so sweet on the sunny side of the street!" Louie Armstrong)

Joy is the light that perks up in us for now reason. Sherry begins this chair yoga class with a centering, connection with the ground and some breath awareness. After centering Sherry goes into some neck releases for you. From there Sherry brings some mobility into your whole body with some leg and foot movement starting with the foot slider. After the foot practice, Sherry begins with some quad practice.

Sherry encourages you in some playful, joyful movements that will get your heart rate up and encourage blood flow. You will practice eagle pose in the chair with 3 options and movements to help you move your shoulder blades down. Your thumb is the first place that arthritis sets in and Sherry gives you some movements for this. There are two dances in this chair yoga class. Sherry moves through some sun salutation flows. You even get to come in and out of your chair with some squats :)

When you come to standing you will do some movements to increase your height, core strengthening and leg strengthening as well as some balancing. When you come back to seated you release your calf and hamstrings with hand to big toe pose using a strap.

The class finishes with an upbeat dance sequence for joy and gratitude.

Props Needed: Chair, Yoga Strap

 

Chair Yoga Class with Sherry Today we have a special guest on Yoga with Melissa Sherry Zak Morris from YogaJP Visit her website here Subscribe to her Channel here No matter what is going on in your life right now, you can always find time to feel the Joy and Gratitude of being alive. Even […]

Chair Yoga Class with Sherry

Today we have a special guest on Yoga with Melissa

Sherry Zak Morris from YogaJP

Visit her website here

Subscribe to her Channel here

No matter what is going on in your life right now, you can always find time to feel the Joy and Gratitude of being alive. Even with our aches, pains, worries and frets we can give ourselves permission to walk on the Sunny Side of Life and appreciate all that we have.

Sherry leads this Energizing Chair Yoga class with a group of senior citizens who happily and joyfully move, dance and smile while celebrating the NOW. Join us! You’ll be glad you did!

(“Life can be so sweet on the sunny side of the street!” Louie Armstrong)

Joy is the light that perks up in us for now reason. Sherry begins this chair yoga class with a centering, connection with the ground and some breath awareness. After centering Sherry goes into some neck releases for you. From there Sherry brings some mobility into your whole body with some leg and foot movement starting with the foot slider. After the foot practice, Sherry begins with some quad practice.

Sherry encourages you in some playful, joyful movements that will get your heart rate up and encourage blood flow. You will practice eagle pose in the chair with 3 options and movements to help you move your shoulder blades down. Your thumb is the first place that arthritis sets in and Sherry gives you some movements for this. There are two dances in this chair yoga class. Sherry moves through some sun salutation flows. You even get to come in and out of your chair with some squats

Steady and Calm Yoga

The speed of our everyday lives, both online and offline can leave us feeling frustrated and disconnected from our patience, stillness and compassion. It is not unusual to feel like our minds, bodies and emotions are endlessly spasming and it is no wonder we feel scattered and unsteady. When we come to our yoga practice we notice just how disconnected and scattered we actually feel. It takes an enormous amount of patience to meet ourselves with friendliness and let go again and again to the steadiness and calmness that is always waiting and available for us.

In this hatha yoga class we will begin by resting into the earth underneath us and feeling the always present steadiness and calmness available to us. With this as our starting point for connectedness and peacefulness we can relax, sink into the moment and connect with what is present in our physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, energy and spirit.

Our habit of wanting to be somewhere else is so conditioned that it takes an ocean of patience to connect gently with steady and calm attention. Through our yoga practice we can allow ourselves to access deeper and more subtle realms of stillness in our bodies and we feel how we begin to slowly settle and are eased from distraction. We let go and settle in again and again with openness and ease.

My teachings are inspired by the writing of Jack Kornfield in A Path With Heart right now.

If you are feeling more calm and steady, let me know by pressing that like button.

If you know anybody else who would like to feel more calm and steady, please feel free to share this video with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Leah.

Your donations help us to offer these healing practices to people just like you all around the world.

You can also give of your time by letting me know in the comments, how do you bring calm and steadiness to your life?

If you are interested in taking these practices further in a more intimate way, then I offer live classes every Monday at 9:30 am PT and 5:30 PT in our membership community where I give teachings, time for you to talk about your practice and ask questions and we also do a guided meditation each week.

We’d love for you to join our Membership Community where we have

* value added content

* community of like-minded people coming together from all around the world

* receive ongoing support in deepening your yoga practice from myself, our leadership team, and our community through an online forum, weekly live classes on Mondays and monthly meetups and retreats.

 

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

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #377 Photos of Yoga Poses

Steady and Calm Yoga The speed of our everyday lives, both online and offline can leave us feeling frustrated and disconnected from our patience, stillness and compassion. It is not unusual to feel like our minds, bodies and emotions are endlessly spasming and it is no wonder we feel scattered and unsteady. When we come […]

Steady and Calm Yoga

The speed of our everyday lives, both online and offline can leave us feeling frustrated and disconnected from our patience, stillness and compassion. It is not unusual to feel like our minds, bodies and emotions are endlessly spasming and it is no wonder we feel scattered and unsteady. When we come to our yoga practice we notice just how disconnected and scattered we actually feel. It takes an enormous amount of patience to meet ourselves with friendliness and let go again and again to the steadiness and calmness that is always waiting and available for us.

In this hatha yoga class we will begin by resting into the earth underneath us and feeling the always present steadiness and calmness available to us. With this as our starting point for connectedness and peacefulness we can relax, sink into the moment and connect with what is present in our physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, energy and spirit.

Our habit of wanting to be somewhere else is so conditioned that it takes an ocean of patience to connect gently with steady and calm attention. Through our yoga practice we can allow ourselves to access deeper and more subtle realms of stillness in our bodies and we feel how we begin to slowly settle and are eased from distraction. We let go and settle in again and again with openness and ease.

My teachings are inspired by the writing of Jack Kornfield in A Path With Heart right now.

If you are feeling more calm and steady, let me know by pressing that like button.

If you know anybody else who would like to feel more calm and steady, please feel free to share this video with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Leah.

Your donations help us to offer these healing practices to people just like you all around the world.

You can also give of your time by letting me know in the comments, how do you bring calm and steadiness to your life?

If you are interested in taking these practices further in a more intimate way, then I offer live classes every Monday at 9:30 am PT and 5:30 PT in our membership community where I give teachings, time for you to talk about your practice and ask questions and we also do a guided meditation each week.

We’d love for you to join our Membership Community where we have

* value added content

* community of like-minded people coming together from all around the world

* receive ongoing support in deepening your yoga practice from myself, our leadership team, and our community through an online forum, weekly live classes on Mondays and monthly meetups and retreats.

 

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

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #377 Photos of Yoga Poses

Hatha Yoga for Healing

We tend to tighten our bodies in response to the painful experiences in our lives whether they be physical, emotional or psychological. As we open to the sensations in our body through our hatha yoga practice, as we turn towards our emotions and the thoughts in our minds and we gradually include all that we have previously shut out of our awareness, our body has the opportunity to heal.

This hatha yoga for healing class opens our bodies, minds and emotions to the physical sensations, thought patterns, and emotional feelings without struggling against them. Opening the doors of awareness to our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, including all our pleasure and pain requires our tender and gentle attention. When we practice yoga and set the intention to turn our attention towards the physical sensations in our bodies, feelings rise to the surface along with memories that may have been long buried. It takes gentle and kind awareness to open to the experience without struggling against them.

As we practice yoga we can feel the support of the earth underneath us and openly face whatever is present in our lives. We can open to all the painful and unpleasant situations we normally block out from the past and know that we have the strength to face whatever unfold for us in the future. Through our yoga practice we release the layers of tightness, the contractions, the knots and the physical, emotional and mental tension gradually begins to dissolve as our heart heals and opens. Through our practice we notice clearly the rhythm and needs of our bodies. We clear the confusion, hearing more clearly each day the physical, mental and emotional needs of our bodies. The more we honour our bodies with our attention, the deeper the healing potential.

My teachings are currently inspired by Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart

If you are looking for more heart healing yoga classes, more healing practices, our membership community is focusing on Ahimsa throughout April this coming month. We have over 50 yoga classes in our membership community that focus on healing your heart. (Click here)

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Reclined Rock the Baby, Reclined Half Happy Baby or Ardha Supta Ananda Balasana, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Reverse Warrior, Camel Variation, Janu Sirsasana or Head Beyond Knee Pose, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Nadi Shodhana or Alternate Nostril Breathing

Props Needed: 2 blocks, bolster

We’d love for you to join our Membership Community where we have:

* value added content

* community of like-minded people coming together from all around the world

* receive ongoing support in deepening your yoga practice from myself, our leadership team, and our community through an online forum, weekly live classes on Mondays and monthly meetups and retreats.

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

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #376 Photos of Yoga Poses