Yoga with Melissa

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 […]

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.

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

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #376 Photos of Yoga Poses

 

Yin Yoga for Beginners

Our guest teacher today is Maris Aylward, creator of the YouTube channel Yoga Upload.

This is a 45-minute yin yoga class for beginners. The yin practice, sometimes called deep stretch, is a more passive form of yoga. We stay in the poses for a few minutes to target the deeper connective tissues. This is a great practice to improve flexibility, relieve stress, and promote relaxation.

If this is your first yin experience, be patient with yourself and your body. Take your time getting into the poses and balance effort with ease. Feel just enough sensation and stretching but make sure there is no pain in the muscles and the joints. Stay in the pose if you can to cultivate stillness but also feel free to come out of the pose when you really need to.

For this class, we will use a bolster (or stack of blankets) and a yoga strap. You may also practice without props. We will show you how to adapt the postures to suit your needs. A smaller screen will appear to show you the pose modifications.

If you like this video, give it a thumbs up! Also remember to subscribe to this channel and to Yoga Upload. Check out the links below.

 

Yin Yoga Postures/Asanas: Butterfly Pose, Dragonfly Pose (Straddle), Lateral Dragonfly, Supported Backbend, Pigeon on Your Back, Twisted Roots, Savasana

Props: Bolster or Stack of Blankets, Strap

YouTube Channel: https: https://www.youtube.com/yogaupload

Website: http://yogaupload.me

Facebook: http://facebook.com/marisyoga

Instagram: http://instagram.com/yogaupload

Yin Yoga for Beginners Our guest teacher today is Maris Aylward, creator of the YouTube channel Yoga Upload. This is a 45-minute yin yoga class for beginners. The yin practice, sometimes called deep stretch, is a more passive form of yoga. We stay in the poses for a few minutes to target the deeper connective […]

Yin Yoga for Beginners

Our guest teacher today is Maris Aylward, creator of the YouTube channel Yoga Upload.

This is a 45-minute yin yoga class for beginners. The yin practice, sometimes called deep stretch, is a more passive form of yoga. We stay in the poses for a few minutes to target the deeper connective tissues. This is a great practice to improve flexibility, relieve stress, and promote relaxation.

If this is your first yin experience, be patient with yourself and your body. Take your time getting into the poses and balance effort with ease. Feel just enough sensation and stretching but make sure there is no pain in the muscles and the joints. Stay in the pose if you can to cultivate stillness but also feel free to come out of the pose when you really need to.

For this class, we will use a bolster (or stack of blankets) and a yoga strap. You may also practice without props. We will show you how to adapt the postures to suit your needs. A smaller screen will appear to show you the pose modifications.

If you like this video, give it a thumbs up! Also remember to subscribe to this channel and to Yoga Upload. Check out the links below.

 

Yin Yoga Postures/Asanas: Butterfly Pose, Dragonfly Pose (Straddle), Lateral Dragonfly, Supported Backbend, Pigeon on Your Back, Twisted Roots, Savasana

Props: Bolster or Stack of Blankets, Strap

YouTube Channel: https: https://www.youtube.com/yogaupload

Website: https://yogaupload.me

Facebook: https://facebook.com/marisyoga

Instagram: https://instagram.com/yogaupload

Take One Seat

If you feel like you are running nowhere in every direction, this class will give you permission to stop and take one seat. This hatha yoga class allows you to take one seat and create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things, the sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, and happiness as Jack Kornfield would say. In our culture there is a tendency to move from one thing to the next when we get uncomfortable. If we are bored or anxious we scroll through social media. In this hatha yoga class we will practice staying, grounding and gently opening our hearts.

The hatha yoga class begins with a supported, restorative yoga pose, reclined bound angle pose to gently open your heart and hips. From there we will open your hips with frog pse and lunge pose. When we come to standing we will gather the courage to stay with Goddess Victory Squat. In a gentle backbend we create a compassionate space to be with whatever arises. Reclined twist and happy baby pose allows a release through your spine and hips. We will finish this hatha yoga class with a Mary Oliver poem in savasana and the Ganesh mudra for courage.

“When we take the one seat, we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.” Jack Kornfield

I am grateful for the teachings from Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart as they have been guiding my own teachings at this time.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Did it feel good to stop running nowhere today and take one seat? If so give this video a thumbs up.

If you know anybody else who would like to stop running nowhere and take one seat then feel free to share it with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Sean, Anne Marie, they help us to continually improve our show for you. One of our most recent improvements was a new lense which makes everything both buttery soft and sharp at the same time. Both Tim and I are in love with this lens so thank you.

You can donate of your time by leaving your comment below. What is your one seat that you take when you notice yourself running around nowhere?

At the beginning of the class I told you I keep the teachings here as brief as possible because of the feedback I have received from my online classes my intention is to keep these classes as minimalist as possible at these time.

Check in with your body. Ask yourself:

So I’m going to be honest with you here and ask you, Are you caught up in sampling? If you do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the practice you have done in one will not continue to build as you change to the next. Sampling will keep you unhappy and caught up in the same old struggles. If your years of practice haven’t changed anything and your practice hasn’t progressed, then now is the time to ask, am I sampling, running from one thing to the next? Do you have a committed relationship of trust with your teacher and one specific form of practice? Or are you running all over the place from one kind of spiritual practice to another? Until you choose one discipline and commit to it, a deeper understanding of yourself and the world will elude you.

Check in with your body again

Do you want to go deeper with these teachings? If there is a resonance or charge for you in your body right now? Are you are feeling called? If so, I hold space for a small group of students within our membership community to go deep with the full teachings on taking one seat and I will be giving the rest of these teachings in my weekly teaching talk in our Live Classes in our Membership Community at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm PT on Mondays followed by a guided relaxation and time for group discussion.

Take One Seat If you feel like you are running nowhere in every direction, this class will give you permission to stop and take one seat. This hatha yoga class allows you to take one seat and create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things, the sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, […]

Take One Seat

If you feel like you are running nowhere in every direction, this class will give you permission to stop and take one seat. This hatha yoga class allows you to take one seat and create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things, the sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, and happiness as Jack Kornfield would say. In our culture there is a tendency to move from one thing to the next when we get uncomfortable. If we are bored or anxious we scroll through social media. In this hatha yoga class we will practice staying, grounding and gently opening our hearts.

The hatha yoga class begins with a supported, restorative yoga pose, reclined bound angle pose to gently open your heart and hips. From there we will open your hips with frog pse and lunge pose. When we come to standing we will gather the courage to stay with Goddess Victory Squat. In a gentle backbend we create a compassionate space to be with whatever arises. Reclined twist and happy baby pose allows a release through your spine and hips. We will finish this hatha yoga class with a Mary Oliver poem in savasana and the Ganesh mudra for courage.

“When we take the one seat, we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness.” Jack Kornfield

I am grateful for the teachings from Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart as they have been guiding my own teachings at this time.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Did it feel good to stop running nowhere today and take one seat? If so give this video a thumbs up.

If you know anybody else who would like to stop running nowhere and take one seat then feel free to share it with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Sean, Anne Marie, they help us to continually improve our show for you. One of our most recent improvements was a new lense which makes everything both buttery soft and sharp at the same time. Both Tim and I are in love with this lens so thank you.

You can donate of your time by leaving your comment below. What is your one seat that you take when you notice yourself running around nowhere?

At the beginning of the class I told you I keep the teachings here as brief as possible because of the feedback I have received from my online classes my intention is to keep these classes as minimalist as possible at these time.

Check in with your body. Ask yourself:

So I’m going to be honest with you here and ask you, Are you caught up in sampling? If you do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the practice you have done in one will not continue to build as you change to the next. Sampling will keep you unhappy and caught up in the same old struggles. If your years of practice haven’t changed anything and your practice hasn’t progressed, then now is the time to ask, am I sampling, running from one thing to the next? Do you have a committed relationship of trust with your teacher and one specific form of practice? Or are you running all over the place from one kind of spiritual practice to another? Until you choose one discipline and commit to it, a deeper understanding of yourself and the world will elude you.

Check in with your body again

Do you want to go deeper with these teachings? If there is a resonance or charge for you in your body right now? Are you are feeling called? If so, I hold space for a small group of students within our membership community to go deep with the full teachings on taking one seat and I will be giving the rest of these teachings in my weekly teaching talk in our Live Classes in our Membership Community at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm PT on Mondays followed by a ...

Ahimsa or Nonviolence

Ahimsa, the first yama or ethical observation of Patajnali’s Yoga Sutras is often translated as “non-violence” or “nonharming.”

All day long we tend to act in subtle and not so subtly aggressive ways against our experience. We are constantly in conflict within ourselves. We resist our lives from our emotional landscape, to illness, aging and the events of the day. We fight against our life.

At our deepest core we have are already tender and compassionate within ourselves, our families, our communities and the world The violence that shows up in our social, emotional, behavioural, cognitive and moral lives is a reflection of our own inner conflict.

We use up excessive energy denying our feelings of pain and not being enough. We close ourselves off from the truth of our existence.

When we become aware of the aggression we have a choice to open to our experience as it is and settle into our bodies and stay connected with our hearts.

This is not a simple task to let go of the aggression, the internal violence, the inherent harming that is part of our habitual experience. We must practice letting go of our own internal aggression, violence and harming until it becomes our way of being. Then we can experience our True Nature, inner stillness, peace, a settling in our bodies and a connectedness with our hearts. Our inner landscape of peace ripples out like a pebble in the pond affecting the whole ocean of life (both inner and outer).

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

What awareness did you receive from this class on releasing aggression?

Do you know anybody who would benefit from this class? Feel free to share it with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Sonja, Diane, Donna, David, Thank you for your continued, faithful support of our weekly show. We are grateful for your generosity as it helps us to share yoga with others just like you all the around the world. We are happy that we are delivering content that inspires you to give in this way.

You may make a monetary donation below or you may give of your time by leaving a comment in the comments area below. Let me know how it felt for you to surrender the internal violence today.

At the beginning of the class I told you I was only going to give you part of the teachings here today on letting go of the aggression. Because of the feedback I have received from my classes my intention is to keep these classes as minimalist as possible at these time. If you want to receive the full teachings on letting go of this internal tension, then I will be giving the rest of these teachings in my weekly teaching talk in our Live Classes in our Membership Community at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm PT on Mondays followed by a guided relaxation and time for group discussion.

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/

Props Needed: Bolster, 2 Blocks

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Reclined Bound Angle Pose or Supta Baddha Konasana, Child’s Pose or Balasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Pigeon Pose or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, Dying Warrior Pose or Wounded Warrior Pose, Gate Pose or Parighasana, Bound Angle Pose or Baddha Konasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Chaturmukha Mudra, Mudra for Surrender

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #373 Photos of Yoga Poses

 

Ahimsa or Nonviolence

Ahimsa, the first yama or ethical observation of Patajnali’s Yoga Sutras is often translated as “non-violence” or “nonharming.”

All day long we tend to act in subtle and not so subtly aggressive ways against our experience. We are constantly in conflict within ourselves. We resist our lives from our emotional landscape, to illness, aging and the events of the day. We fight against our life.

At our deepest core we have are already tender and compassionate within ourselves, our families, our communities and the world The violence that shows up in our social, emotional, behavioural, cognitive and moral lives is a reflection of our own inner conflict.

We use up excessive energy denying our feelings of pain and not being enough. We close ourselves off from the truth of our existence.

When we become aware of the aggression we have a choice to open to our experience as it is and settle into our bodies and stay connected with our hearts.

This is not a simple task to let go of the aggression, the internal violence, the inherent harming that is part of our habitual experience. We must practice letting go of our own internal aggression, violence and harming until it becomes our way of being. Then we can experience our True Nature, inner stillness, peace, a settling in our bodies and a connectedness with our hearts. Our inner landscape of peace ripples out like a pebble in the pond affecting the whole ocean of life (both inner and outer).

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

What awareness did you receive from this class on releasing aggression?

Do you know anybody who would benefit from this class? Feel free to share it with them.

Thank you so much for your donations: Sonja, Diane, Donna, David, Thank you for your continued, faithful support of our weekly show. We are grateful for your generosity as it helps us to share yoga with others just like you all the around the world. We are happy that we are delivering content that inspires you to give in this way.

You may make a monetary donation below or you may give of your time by leaving a comment in the comments area below. Let me know how it felt for you to surrender the internal violence today.

At the beginning of the class I told you I was only going to give you part of the teachings here today on letting go of the aggression. Because of the feedback I have received from my classes my intention is to keep these classes as minimalist as possible at these time. If you want to receive the full teachings on letting go of this internal tension, then I will be giving the rest of these teachings in my weekly teaching talk in our Live Classes in our Membership Community at 9:30 am and 5:30 pm PT on Mondays followed by a guided relaxation and time for group discussion.

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/

Props Needed: Bolster, 2 Blocks

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Reclined Bound Angle Pose or Supta Baddha Konasana, Child’s Pose or Balasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Pigeon Pose or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, Dying Warrior Pose or Wounded Warrior Pose, Gate Pose or Parighasana, Bound Angle Pose or Baddha Konasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Chaturmukha Mudra, Mudra for Surrender

Weekly Yoga with Melissa #373 Photos of Yoga Poses