Yoga with Melissa

Yoga for Spine Everything I learned about the importance of my spine I learned from my teachers at Esther Myers Yoga Studio. Your spines is your structural, nervous and energetic core of of your body. Esther Myer says, “When you connect with your spine, you are connected to the core of who you are, where […]

Yoga for Spine

Everything I learned about the importance of my spine I learned from my teachers at Esther Myers Yoga Studio. Your spines is your structural, nervous and energetic core of of your body. Esther Myer says, “When you connect with your spine, you are connected to the core of who you are, where you stand, and what you believe and value.”

Take a moment now as you are sitting here, to connect with your spine. Notice how it allows you to orient yourself in space. Notice how it gives you your position and sense of direction in relation to the ground underneath your tailbone and pelvis.

Feel your spine as you sit and allow it to support you fully. As you do so, you may notice that your muscular tension begins to let go. The skeletal support of your spine allows your muscles to release.

Spinal mobility and flexibility is also incredibly important. Through the practice of yoga postures, you move your spine through flexion, extension, rotation, lateral extension or side bending, rotation as well as axial extension or decompression as your vertically elongate your spine. In several of these movements your spine elongates and lengthens. Esther Myers describes your body being divided in half at your waist. Your lower half of your body being pulled into the ground through gravity like the roots of a plant (like we focused on last week with our grounding yoga class) and your upper body is released towards the sky like a stem. Esther Myers describes the elongation of your spine giving you a sense of direction and where you are going. Feel into your spine right now, ask your spine where it is leading you.

Your neck is an incredibly important part of your spine. It allows your head to turn in all directions, opening you to many possibilities, however the opposite is also true. Stiff necks which are incredibly common in our culture may also mean that you don’t know which way to turn or that you can only see the one option that is right in front of you. A flexible cervical spine therefore opens you up in a graceful and fluid way to let go of rigidity and embrace going with the flow.

Resource: Yoga and You by Esther Myers and Deb Shapiro Your Body Speaks Your Mind

Props Needed: Round Bolster, meditation cushion or chair,

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Reclined Side Bend with Bolster, Neck Shoulder and Hip Release, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Shankh Mudra or Shell Mudra, Kapalabhati Breath or Skull Shining Breath, Gate Pose or Parighasana, four movements of your neck, Sun Salutation or Surya Namaskar, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Warrior Two or Virabhadrasana Two Short Stance Esther Myers, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Fish Pose or Matsyasana, Easy Twist or parivrtta sukhasana, Child’s Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

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What class would you like to see next week on Yoga with Melissa for the Back to School Yoga series? A class on Strength or a Class on Flexibility? Write strength or Flexibility and let me know why that class is important to you in the comments. I will make my decision based on the most comments and also best reasons why

Grounding Intermediate Yoga We resist embodiment and we remain outside of our embodied experience. We are disassociated from our bodies, their sensations, aliveness, pain, joy, pleasure. This summer with the explosion of pokemon go we became floating heads attached to screens hunting our next acquisition. Our energy has recoiled into our heads for a completely […]

Grounding Intermediate Yoga

We resist embodiment and we remain outside of our embodied experience. We are disassociated from our bodies, their sensations, aliveness, pain, joy, pleasure.

This summer with the explosion of pokemon go we became floating heads attached to screens hunting our next acquisition. Our energy has recoiled into our heads for a completely cerebral experience. The experience is no different as we head back to school and all our heady intellectual pursuits, trying to control our lives from our heads.

The two things people request most from me is yoga to help them focus and yoga for anxiety.

These two requests suggest to me that we are not in our bodies, we are not connected to our embodied experience. We are scattered, spaced out, in our heads and ungrounded.

Being grounded means to fully inhabit your body. It is an openness to your embodied sensations. Grounding asks us to step away from our mental distraction to the embodied sensed immediacy of the present moment.

Letting go of chronic tension in our physical bodies and feeling our connection with the earth will help us disconnect with mental diarrhea and drama and connect with embodied sensations. Today we are going to do that through our hands, feet and belly. Our hands are our grip on reality, our feet are our connection to the earth and literally the ground we stand on, and our belly is our center of gravity.

Resource: Getting Grounded

Props Needed: blocks

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Locust Pose or Salabhasana, hand yoga, foot yoga, avahana mudra, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Pyramid Pose or Standing Forward Folding Triangle, Chair Pose or Utkatasana, Utkata Konasana or Goddess Victory Squat, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana, Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Dying Warrior, Child’s Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose

by Michael Nagel

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

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What movement today helped you feel most connected to the earth?

What movement helped you feel most grounded today?

If you would like my Back to School List my list of 10 Essential Yoga Classes to get you through the back to school season then scroll to the bottom and put your email address in.

Today we focused on grounding. We have two fabulous value added classes on grounding in our membership community. Yoga for Grounding and Yoga for Anxiety.

If you would like access to these you can click below to become a member

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Weekly Yoga with Melissa #348 Photos of Yoga Pose

Yoga Breath Why is breathing, mindful breathing and yogic breathing so important to our overall health? In our day to day life we experience extended periods of stress, over thinking, exercise, breathing deficiencies and because of this our blood becomes acidic. If your body is acidic you might experience headaches, light-headedness, cognitive issues, confusion, sleepiness, […]

Yoga Breath

Why is breathing, mindful breathing and yogic breathing so important to our overall health? In our day to day life we experience extended periods of stress, over thinking, exercise, breathing deficiencies and because of this our blood becomes acidic. If your body is acidic you might experience headaches, light-headedness, cognitive issues, confusion, sleepiness, joint pain, muscle aches, osteoporosis, weak brittle bones, nausea. It is not uncommon for a stressful day of work to cause acidosis. You might also experience brain fog, poor memory, fatigue, restlessness, nervousness, anxiety, indigestion, cardiovascular disease, colitis and heartburn, poor sleep and autoimmune diseases. When your brain cells work extra hard without being properly nourished with oxygen, it is easy for brain cells to not be properly nourished with oxygen. It is possible to alkalize your blood and tissues with additional oxygen. Deeper breathing throughout your day, during times or increased stress, problem solving and physical exertion can help to prevent an acidic environment in your body as well as connective tissue damage.

The average breath capacity of an adult is 6K cubic cm. When you breathe unconsciously in a relaxed way you might breathe between 500 to 700 cc in and out. There will be about 1, 200 to 1, 500 cc left in your lungs during this breathing. If you focus on completely breathing out, that is taking a complete exhale, you have the capacity to move between 4, 800 and 5, 200 c of air. With mindful breathing it is simple to bring more oxygen into your bloodstream and release stale, acidic carbon dioxide as you exhale.

Oxygen is the most powerful nutrient that you can take into your body. Oxygen is vital the the operation of every organ and tissue in your system. Oxygen improves the immune function of your blood and tissue making your blood and tissue less hospitable to bacteria and viral invasion. Better oxygen in your tissues will allow your body to be more efficient overall since restricted airways and contaminated air lead to tissue damage.

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

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We are so incredibly to have your support each and every week. Your donations of $5, $10, $25, $50 and $100 help us to continually improve our yoga show. Right now we are investing in new computer equipment, hard drives and a video card. If you would like to make a donation to support us in purchasing new hardware for the processing and storage of weekly Yoga with Melissa shows, then click below to contribute to the production of the weekly yoga show.

Today’s question to answer in the comments is, what do you notice from increasing your oxygen to your cells today? How have you benefited from expanding your lung capacity with your yoga practice today? Let me know in the comments below.

Props Needed: 2 blocks, meditation cushion, folded blanket or chair,

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Side Bend or Supta Ardha Chandrasana, Cat Pose or Marjaryasana, Puppy Pose, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Shakata Mudra II, Tadasana or Mountain Pose, Chair Pose or Utkatasana, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Fish Pose or Matsyasana, Easy Twist or Parivrtta Sukhasana, Kapala bhati Pranayama or Skull Shining Breath, Navasana or boat pose, Corpse Pose or Savasana

The First Step Start Close In by David Whyte Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take. Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet, your own way to begin the conversation. Start with your […]

The First Step

Start Close In by David Whyte

Start close in,

don’t take the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step

you don’t want to take.

Start with

the ground

you know,

the pale ground

beneath your feet,

your own

way to begin

the conversation.

Start with your own

question,

give up on other

people’s questions,

don’t let them

smother something

Simple.

To hear

another’s voice,

follow

your own voice,

wait until

that voice

becomes an

intimate

private ear

that can

really listen

to another.

Start right now

take a small step

you can call your own

don’t follow

someone else’s

heroics, be humble

and focused,

start close in,

don’t mistake

that other

for your own.

Start close in,

don’t take

the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step

you don’t want to take.

A David Whyte poem from

River Flow: New & Selected Poems

Many Rivers Press

This poem reminds me of the quote, don’t compare your beginning with somebody else’s middle. In the age of digital media, it is natural to compare our beginnings with everybody else’s middle when we decide to start something. We cannot expect to be a master at the beginning. We cannot expect to skip all the steps that our teachers have taken along the path to get where they have gotten.

About a year ago, I started drawing mandalas, this led to an interest in art more generally speaking. I live in a huge artist community here in Victoria, BC and in an age of digital media when there are loads of art teachers online as well. I even had one of my yoga with Melissa students, an artist, step forward and offer to teach me. It was very difficult not to compare my rudimentary paintings to their practiced works of art. I had no experience with colour, shape, values, rules of thirds, perspective, shadows … at the beginning it was all overwhelming. However, I took the first step, everyday I would practice some form of art, painting, collage, sketching, drawing, something. I took art courses, I looked at art. Over time, I learned more and my art improved. I took the first step, I started close in, with the step that I didn’t want to take. My art wasn’t very good at the beginning. I made my own mistakes. I learned from my mistakes. I keep trying and taking the next step, the one closest in.

A similar thing is happening now after two years of having frozen shoulder, I almost have full range of motion back in my shoulder. I want to be able to do everything again, however my shoulder and arms have lost a lot of mobility and strength. The same principle has applied. I was not able to go from nothing to back to doing handstands, I had to take the next step, the one closest, building my strength, mobility and endurance slowly, following the wisdom of my own body.

Reflect on these teachings and how they relate to you. When have you wanted to be in the middle instead of at the beginning taking the first step? What is the first step that you can take right now in your life?

Props Needed: 2 blocks, meditation cushion or chair, wall

Yoga Postures/Asanas: setu bandhasana or bridge pose,

Heart Opening Yoga Untitled by Dawna Markova I will not die an unlived life, I will not live in fear Of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days To allow my living to open me, To make me less afraid, more accessible, To loosen my heart Until it becomes a wing, A […]

Heart Opening Yoga

Untitled

by Dawna Markova

I will not die an unlived life,

I will not live in fear

Of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days

To allow my living to open me,

To make me less afraid,

more accessible,

To loosen my heart

Until it becomes a wing,

A torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance; to live

So that which came to me as seed

Goes to the next as blossom

And that which came to me as blossom

Goes on as fruit.

By Dawna Markova, from the book I Will Not Die an Unlived Life

When we practice yoga, we move our body into shapes that “loosen our heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise” the effect of such movements on our body is that the seeds that are held in our body become a blossom and then go on as a fruit.

Backbending yoga postures in particular open up our heart centers. In order to open our hearts, we must be rooted in legs and feet (in other words ourselves) and flexible in our spines. Backbending are postures of emergence and confidence. They help us to overcome doubts and fears about ourselves. By opening up the front of our body and strengthening the back of our body, we activate our innate ability to be present to life and to create – as the poem says.

Backbends take courage as they ask us to let go of the protective defenses around our heart including power and control issues so that we can express ourselves more fully. While backbending opens us to our vulnerability in order to express our authentic self, it also asks us to tap into our strength and our willingness to commit to our life’s purpose.

Props Needed: 2 blocks

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Supported Fish Pose/Salamba Matsyasana, Reclined Side Bend or Supta Ardha Chandrasana, Reclined Knee Down Twist or Supta Matsyendrasana, Lunge Pose or Anjaneyasana, Twist and Side Bend in Lunge Pose, Mudra: Vajra Mudra, Standing Twist, Standing Side Bend or Ardha Chandrasana, Warrior One or Virabhadrasana One, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Upward Facing Dog or Urdvha Mukha Svanasana, Dying Warrior, Upavista Konasana or Wide legged forward fold, Savasana or Corpse Pose

Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

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Thank you for your donations: Peige, Sue, Hannah

Today’s question to answer in the comments section is: What is blossoming to become a fruit in your life right now?

If you would like an infographic of my top 3 benefits of engaging with poetry then scroll down to the opt in box and type in your email address. We will send you a beautiful infographic of my 3 benefits of engaging with poetry.

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