Yoga with Melissa

Special Yin Yoga Class with Kassandra ​Today’s Yoga with Melissa class is a collaboration and features a special guest, Kassandra from YouTube channel Yoga with Kassandra. Kassandra has kindly filmed a yin yoga class for all of you. This beginner friendly yin yoga class is a fantastic way to give your joints some TLC. Yin […]

Special Yin Yoga Class with Kassandra

​Today’s Yoga with Melissa class is a collaboration and features a special guest, Kassandra from YouTube channel Yoga with Kassandra. Kassandra has kindly filmed a yin yoga class for all of you.

This beginner friendly yin yoga class is a fantastic way to give your joints some TLC. Yin yoga is a passive practice where we learn to work with gravity to reduce stress and anxiety, improve joint health and increase our range of motion. Yogis with limited flexibility will enjoy these simple poses that can produce big results when done consistently. I’m not using any props during this practice but you may want to have 1 block and 1 strap close by. The three principles of Yin Yoga are: finding your edge, holding the pose and being still. This means that we are never trying to push ourselves further into a pose and risking injury. Respect your body and listen to the feedback you are receiving. We also want to remain still without engaging the muscles to bring the stress to our joints as opposed to our muscular tissues. Yin yoga asanas are held anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes. In this beginner practice, most poses will be held for about 3 minutes. Always remember that you can come out of a pose at any time!

​I’m excited to ​welcome Kassandra on my channel and look forward to future collaborations​ with other Yoga instructors from YouTube​. Please leave your requests for other YouTube yoga teachers that you would like to see on my channel in the comments below. ​​Or, if you are a Yoga teacher on YouTube who would like to collaborate, let me know

Balance and Abundance

Yoga with Melissa 365 Moving at the Speed of Our Bodies: Inner Balance and Abundance Brahmacharya and Aparigraha

As we come into the New Year we enter a time when we have excessive expectations from our body. We want extravagant gains financially, professionally, and for our lives in general. We desire unreasonable losses from our bodies in terms of weight, eternal youth or other physical changes. All of these are a form of violence that cause enormous suffering. When we know how to stop this insanity we will experience balance, equanimity and grace in our lives.

Today we are going to focus on two yamas, including brahmacharya and aparigraha, from Patanjali’s yoga sutras which are invitations and outward practice that promote peace and harmony in your life as you interact with people and the world we live in. It is important to remember that the yamas are wise characteristics that already exist within us. Through our practice of yoga, we come closer to knowing these qualities that are our True Nature.

Nischala Joy Devi translates Brahmacharya in chapter 2:38 as “Devoted to living a balanced and moderate life (Brahmacharya) the scope of one’s life force becomes boundless.” When we live a life of moderation and balance this brings focus to our lives. It also brings balance to our Divine and human nature.

When we come into the New Year with resolutions that are excessively demanding of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies, this is brahmacharya out of balance. This refers to the nonproductive expenditures of energy. Everything we do causes an outflow of energy. It is up to us to tune into whether our actions drain us or gives us energy. Brahmacharya translates as expending only the energy we need to live in harmony. Certain activities such as starving our bodies, over exercising, over exerting yourself mentally, staying up too late, overworking, expend a lot of energy and bring you out of balance rather than into it.

The final and fifth yama is aparigraha. This yama often gets translated as non-possessiveness or non-hoarding. It means to take only what you need. When reflecting on this yama, we can ask questions such as how much do I need? I am not saying that financial stability is not important, however recognizing that we have enough, appreciating the goodness in life is incredibly important to preserving our energy.

Aparigraha not only refers to our expectations for material wealth and fame, but also unrealistic expectations for non-stop happiness and joy in our lives. It is simply unrealistic to expect that this year is going to be all good. There will be good parts and there will be parts that are more challenging. If we spend all our time worrying about our future, we lose a lot of energy. Instead we can take the time to appreciate what we have in our lives and the world around us. Your life is far more valuable than any excessive material wealth can be.

The sutra on aparigraha is translated, “by practicing aparigraha, we discover why we were born” (Nicolai Bachman’s translation). Nischala Joy Devi puts it this way, “Acknowledging abundance we recognize the blessings in everything and gain insights into the purpose for our worldly existence.” This is a pretty bold statement, one that suggests that without the external stimulus of our possessions we will have more time for balance in our internal lives.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Yoga Poses/Asana: Supta Padangusthasana or Hand to Big Toe Pose, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold, Cobra or Bhujangasana, Frog Pose or Mandukasana, Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold or UpaVista Konasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Nadi Shodhana or Alternate Nostril Breathing

Balance and Abundance Yoga with Melissa 365 Moving at the Speed of Our Bodies: Inner Balance and Abundance Brahmacharya and Aparigraha As we come into the New Year we enter a time when we have excessive expectations from our body. We want extravagant gains financially, professionally, and for our lives in general. We desire unreasonable […]

Balance and Abundance

Yoga with Melissa 365 Moving at the Speed of Our Bodies: Inner Balance and Abundance Brahmacharya and Aparigraha

As we come into the New Year we enter a time when we have excessive expectations from our body. We want extravagant gains financially, professionally, and for our lives in general. We desire unreasonable losses from our bodies in terms of weight, eternal youth or other physical changes. All of these are a form of violence that cause enormous suffering. When we know how to stop this insanity we will experience balance, equanimity and grace in our lives.

Today we are going to focus on two yamas, including brahmacharya and aparigraha, from Patanjali’s yoga sutras which are invitations and outward practice that promote peace and harmony in your life as you interact with people and the world we live in. It is important to remember that the yamas are wise characteristics that already exist within us. Through our practice of yoga, we come closer to knowing these qualities that are our True Nature.

Nischala Joy Devi translates Brahmacharya in chapter 2:38 as “Devoted to living a balanced and moderate life (Brahmacharya) the scope of one’s life force becomes boundless.” When we live a life of moderation and balance this brings focus to our lives. It also brings balance to our Divine and human nature.

When we come into the New Year with resolutions that are excessively demanding of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies, this is brahmacharya out of balance. This refers to the nonproductive expenditures of energy. Everything we do causes an outflow of energy. It is up to us to tune into whether our actions drain us or gives us energy. Brahmacharya translates as expending only the energy we need to live in harmony. Certain activities such as starving our bodies, over exercising, over exerting yourself mentally, staying up too late, overworking, expend a lot of energy and bring you out of balance rather than into it.

The final and fifth yama is aparigraha. This yama often gets translated as non-possessiveness or non-hoarding. It means to take only what you need. When reflecting on this yama, we can ask questions such as how much do I need? I am not saying that financial stability is not important, however recognizing that we have enough, appreciating the goodness in life is incredibly important to preserving our energy.

Aparigraha not only refers to our expectations for material wealth and fame, but also unrealistic expectations for non-stop happiness and joy in our lives. It is simply unrealistic to expect that this year is going to be all good. There will be good parts and there will be parts that are more challenging. If we spend all our time worrying about our future, we lose a lot of energy. Instead we can take the time to appreciate what we have in our lives and the world around us. Your life is far more valuable than any excessive material wealth can be.

The sutra on aparigraha is translated, “by practicing aparigraha, we discover why we were born” (Nicolai Bachman’s translation). Nischala Joy Devi puts it this way, “Acknowledging abundance we recognize the blessings in everything and gain insights into the purpose for our worldly existence.” This is a pretty bold statement, one that suggests that without the external stimulus of our possessions we will have more time for balance in our internal lives.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

Yoga Poses/Asana: Supta Padangusthasana or Hand to Big Toe Pose, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold, Cobra or Bhujangasana, Frog Pose or Mandukasana, Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold or UpaVista Konasana...

How to Balance in Dancer Pose

I would recommend that our members do the upper back rehydration sequence before this class.

As we are making the transition from 2016 to 2017, one of the many reasons to sit out or dance could be your balance system. As you know so far from our series, your ability to balance is made up of your somatosensory system of your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system. It is your central nervous system that receives feedback about your body’s orientation from your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system and generates corrective and stabilizing reactions throughout your body by activating your muscles.

Most people rely on 70% proprioceptive feedback, 20% vestibular feedback and 10% visual feedback for balance when they are on a firm and flat surface. However When you are on an unstable surface (and I encourage you to practice your balance on an unstable surface) this changes to 60% vestibular feedback, 30% vision and 10% proprioceptive feedback. It almost turns upside down! The training we are doing with our vestibular system and visual systems in these yoga classes is so beneficial, because it is unusual that you are going to fall on a flat, smooth, stable surface.

Proprioception means your skin, muscles, and joints all contain sensory receptors (proprioceptors) that are sensitive to stretch or pressure in the surrounding tissues. It helps your brain recognize where your body is in space, even if your vestibular and visual systems are compromised (for example if your eyes are closed or your ears are plugged)

Sensory information about things like motion, equilibrium, and where your body is at in space is provided by something called a vestibular system. Your vestibular system is the part of your ear that includes the utricle, saccule, and three semicircular canals. The utricle and saccule detect gravity and front-to-back or side-to-side movement. In contrast, the semicircular canals detect rotational movement.

With your eyes, your visual system figures out where your head and body are in space and also your spatial location relative to other objects.

All three systems are important to developing balance in yoga poses like dancer pose so that when you have the choice between sitting out and dancing, you can dance.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Sphinx or Salamba Bhujangasana, Half Bow Pose or Ardha Dhanurasana, Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana or Pigeon Pose, Eka Pada Urdhva Virasana or Lunge Using Wall, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Dancer Pose or Natarajasana, Uttanasana or Standing Forward Fold, Reclined Twist or Supta Matsyendrasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Props: wall, blanket, bolster, strap

Thank you for your donations: Sonja, Diane, Donna

If you are receiving value from Yoga with Melissa you can make a monetary donation below.

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

What balancing poses do you find the most challenging and why? I am planning on doing a whole series on balance and I will include the yoga balancing poses that you find most challenging in this series if you leave them in the comments :)

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How to Balance in Dancer Pose I would recommend that our members do the upper back rehydration sequence before this class. As we are making the transition from 2016 to 2017, one of the many reasons to sit out or dance could be your balance system. As you know so far from our series, your […]

How to Balance in Dancer Pose

I would recommend that our members do the upper back rehydration sequence before this class.

As we are making the transition from 2016 to 2017, one of the many reasons to sit out or dance could be your balance system. As you know so far from our series, your ability to balance is made up of your somatosensory system of your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system. It is your central nervous system that receives feedback about your body’s orientation from your proprioceptive system, your vestibular system and your visual system and generates corrective and stabilizing reactions throughout your body by activating your muscles.

Most people rely on 70% proprioceptive feedback, 20% vestibular feedback and 10% visual feedback for balance when they are on a firm and flat surface. However When you are on an unstable surface (and I encourage you to practice your balance on an unstable surface) this changes to 60% vestibular feedback, 30% vision and 10% proprioceptive feedback. It almost turns upside down! The training we are doing with our vestibular system and visual systems in these yoga classes is so beneficial, because it is unusual that you are going to fall on a flat, smooth, stable surface.

Proprioception means your skin, muscles, and joints all contain sensory receptors (proprioceptors) that are sensitive to stretch or pressure in the surrounding tissues. It helps your brain recognize where your body is in space, even if your vestibular and visual systems are compromised (for example if your eyes are closed or your ears are plugged)

Sensory information about things like motion, equilibrium, and where your body is at in space is provided by something called a vestibular system. Your vestibular system is the part of your ear that includes the utricle, saccule, and three semicircular canals. The utricle and saccule detect gravity and front-to-back or side-to-side movement. In contrast, the semicircular canals detect rotational movement.

With your eyes, your visual system figures out where your head and body are in space and also your spatial location relative to other objects.

All three systems are important to developing balance in yoga poses like dancer pose so that when you have the choice between sitting out and dancing, you can dance.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Sphinx or Salamba Bhujangasana, Half Bow Pose or Ardha Dhanurasana, Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana or Pigeon Pose, Eka Pada Urdhva Virasana or Lunge Using Wall, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two, Dancer Pose or Natarajasana, Uttanasana or Standing Forward Fold, Reclined Twist or Supta Matsyendrasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Props: wall, blanket, bolster, strap

Thank you for your donations: Sonja, Diane, Donna

If you are receiving value from Yoga with Melissa you can make a monetary donation below.

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

What balancing poses do you find the most challenging and why? I am planning on doing a whole series on balance and I will include the yoga balancing poses that you find most challenging in this series if you leave them in the comments

Without Effort

As we are only a couple of days away from the Christmas here, it is easy to get caught up in the energy of excessive effort and struggle. We overwork and exhaust ourselves. Today we will explore letting go of effort, starting right here.

You have a choice whenever you do something, to try harder, to apply effort or to let go and allow yourself to flow naturally with the world around you. Focus on what you are doing, allow your attention to go into it, but you do not need to strain.

Restorative yoga can be a fabulous container to practice without effort. We can come into the poses and allow the props to support us. Then when we come back into our lives we can ask ourselves, how can we go with the flow? How can we be conscious and aware and yet have ease as we go about our day? We can still do our work, we probably just do not need to try as hard most of the time, just like in our yoga postures, the yoga posture will do the work on our body once we get into the shape. When we meet our lives half way with effortless action, we do not need to work so hard.

When you focus on letting go of effort, you are releasing tension from your physical, mental emotional and energetic bodies. Deeply relaxes your body, stills your mind and calms your nervous system.

Letting go of effort will open you up to the natural ebb and flow of life. Helps you open a more compassionate understanding towards yourself and others and will enhance your emotional connection with yourself and those you love.

Yoga Poses/Asana:  guided relaxation, child’s pose or balasana, downward facing dog or adho mukha svanasana, reclined twist, reclined bound angle pose or supta baddha konasana, savasana or corpse pose

Props Needed: blanket, blocks, bolster, eye pillow

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

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Thank you for your donations: Joshua, Donna, Hilary and Carla :)

You can also contribute of your time and influence the direction of the next Yoga with Melissa by answering the following question in the comments:

Where does effort creep up in your body? Where do you feel like you are trying too hard in your body?

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Today we focused on letting go of effort in our body. If you would like support in that then every Monday we meet for live class, a guided relaxation to release tension from your body in our membership community. We would love for you to join us for that. :) (Click here)

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Without Effort As we are only a couple of days away from the Christmas here, it is easy to get caught up in the energy of excessive effort and struggle. We overwork and exhaust ourselves. Today we will explore letting go of effort, starting right here. You have a choice whenever you do something, to […]