Living Your Yoga With Dr Melissa West

This 15 minute morning yoga practice will support you in alleviating neck and shoulder pain. It is perfect for those of you, who like me, suffer from chronic neck and shoulder pain. I didn’t even realize how exhausting and energy draining it was to have neck and shoulder pain until I built these simple yoga exercises into my daily routine. It is a perfect way to start your day. This yoga sequence of simple yoga poses will help to release tension in your neck and shoulders, improve your shoulder mobility, increase flexibility and free up energy that has been stagnant in your shoulder joints. All you need is a yoga strap and you can do this practice anywhere because all the poses are done standing. So this is a simple yoga sequence that you can take with you when you travel, because you don’t even need a yoga mat! I will talk you through the movements and demonstrate the neck and shoulder yoga exercises in real time for each pose. Remember, when it comes to neck movement, a little is a lot. I hope you find

This short 10 minute yoga nidra meditation or NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) is a guided journey of deep relaxation and restoration for your body and mind. In this guided meditation, I will guide you through a body scan and breathing to support you in releasing tension, soothing your nervous system, reducing stress, and cultivating a sense of inner peace and tranquility. Yoga nidra is an effortless meditation that will support you in surrendering the pushing, striving and hustling that keeps us from rest. Find a comfortable place to lie down, gravy a cozy blanket and get ready for 10 minutes of deep restorative self care. Feel free to make any adjustments and modifications along the way to make the practice even more restful for you. May this practice bring you calm, soothe your nervous system, reduce anxiety and detach stress from your body.

In this 60 minute restorative yoga class we will stimulate the vagus nerve through restorative yoga poses, breathing, sounding, and self massage to relieve anxiety. By stimulating the vagus nerve we will activate your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for calming your body and reducing your stress response. Props Needed: Wall, Bolster, Blocks, Yoga Strap, Eye Pillow, Blanket

Are you looking for the perfect daily hatha yoga class that you can do anywhere? For this yoga class you don’t even need a yoga mat and you could do it outside or when you are travelling on vacation. The entire class is done standing so it is incredibly versatile to be able to practice this class whenever and wherever you want! We begin with a standing twist to stimulate energy flow and circulation throughout your entire body, plus it will take your spine through rotation and release your back. Standing Cat/Cow takes your spine through flexion and extension and will open up your chest, release your diaphragm and improve your breathing. Our dynamic lunges will release your back, groin, and support you in balance and releasing what no longer serves. The wide-legged side bend takes your spine through lateral flexion and will continue to open up your breathing capacity. Standing Knee to chest and figure four pose will allow you to continue to practice your balancing and offer a deep opening of the hips. Addi

Our back becomes tight and painful with injury but also in response to stress and tension. When we are tight with fear, anxiety, and stress, we try to control our lives and our body tenses. When we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed our body seizes up in responseAlways working hard, trying to do better, building up pressure to prove yourself personally and professionally takes its toll on your body and often can result in back pain. Tension myositis syndrome - weak, painful, aching muscles that get worse over time, as a result of tension and anxiety, usually occurs between 30-60 years of age, when you have the most responsibilities and pressures to succeed. When things feel out of control in our lives, our sympathetic nervous system activates and creates and maintains tension in our bodies. Through yoga we can gradually, step by step, shift from the anxiety, control, and physical tension to step by step trusting the mysterious unfolding of our lives. The habitual tendency to strive, grip and hold

This 30-minute Yin Yoga Full Body Deep Stretch Beginner class is just what you need to find balance in our hustle culture. Unlike most forms of yoga, yin yoga focuses on the deeper connective tissues in your hips, pelvis, and lower spine, helping you release tension and find stillness. In this class, you'll learn the three principles of yin yoga: finding your edge, resolving to be still, and staying for a while. With gentle, slow movements, you'll explore the yin qualities of surrender, ease, and relaxation, allowing gravity to take the weight of your body and access the deeper layers of your connective tissues. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced yogi, this class will help you drop into your body and find balance in your life. If you are brand new to yoga and get frustrated with other yoga classes on YouTube that don´t give modifications and are too hard to follow, don´t worry, our beginner yin yoga classes are actually for beginners, people who have never done yoga before. We offer slow, easy to f

Welcome to a 30-minute Yin Yang Yoga class for Neck & Shoulder Pain Relief! If you're dealing with neck and shoulder pain, this class will help. My intention is to help you release tension, increase mobility, and find relief from discomfort. In this class, we'll start with a gentle Yin sequence to apply appropriate stress to the tissues that wrap around the joints of your body. We'll move through Supported Fish Pose, Heart Melting Pose, and Broken Wing Pose, focusing on finding an appropriate edge, softening, and being still. Remember, not every pose will be possible for every body, and that's okay! I’ll offer alternatives so you can find what works best for your body. Then, we'll transition to the Yang portion of the class, where we'll focus on building flexibility and mobility through standing postures such as Tadasana and Warrior One, and movements like shoulder circles and spinal mobility. We'll end with a relaxing Savasana to let the body integrate the benefits of the practice. Remember, it's not abou

This 30 minute restorative yoga class is designed specifically to boost your immune system. In this class, we will focus on yoga poses that help increase your internal resistance and immunity so that you can remain healthy and vibrant. We will begin with legs up the wall pose, which allows the lymph nodes in our neck, armpits, and groin to work more efficiently. Next, we will practice supported fish pose to stimulate the thymus gland, which is responsible for producing T cells. We will also practice a restorative side bend to stimulate the spleen, which filters germs from our bloodstream. Finally, we will end with bound angle pose to open up the thymus and groin lymph nodes. Restorative yoga has a tonifying effect on the body and helps increase the activity and efficiency of the cells in our immune system. By strengthening our internal body and trusting its innate potential for maintaining health and to overcome illness, we can heal from within and restore balance to our bodies. This is real yoga for real

Are you ready for an hour of rejuvenating, invigorating, and soul-nurturing hatha yoga poses that you should do daily? This class is packed with the top twelve yoga poses you should do every day to transform your mind and body. Melissa West, your clear-seeing yoga guide will take you through inversions, backbends, twists, forward folds, balancing poses, side bends, and resting postures to give you a complete real yoga for real people experience . You'll strengthen your legs and glutes while opening up your chest and relieving back pain from hours of screen time. Hip openers will release tension, making them perfect for athletes and those who sit for long periods. You'll also give your immune system a boost and recharge your batteries with restorative poses, which will leave you feeling refreshed and energized. Throughout the class, your spine will be taken through the four movements of flexion, extension, lateral flexion, and rotation to relieve back pain and soothe stress and anxiety. Balancing postures a

This healing yoga nidra combines the best of yoga nidra and forest bathing and was filmed and recorded on the Rainforest Trail in Pacific Rim National Park in Tofino. Yoga nidra calms your thinking mind, improves your sleep, improves your physical health, releases stress, anxiety and depression, and releases chronic pain. It promotes deep rest and relaxation that isn’t available in your average guided meditation practice. Forest bathing reduces stress hormone production, improves feelings of happiness, frees up creativity, lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, boost your immune system and supports you in recovering from illness.  In this yoga nidra you will imagine you are on the Rainforest trail with us. Through this guided meditation, done in a reclined position you will explore your symbiotic and healing relationship with the forest.

  This healing yoga nidra combines the best of yoga nidra and forest bathing by an ocean and was filmed and recorded on the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet on Vancouver Island. Yoga nidra calms your thinking mind, improves your sleep, improves your physical health, releases stress, anxiety and depression, and releases chronic pain. It promotes deep rest and relaxation that isn’t available in your average guided meditation practice. Forest bathing reduces stress hormone production, improves feelings of happiness, frees up creativity, lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, boosts your immune system and supports you in recovering from illness. In this yoga nidra you will imagine you are on the Wild Pacific Trail with us. Through this guided meditation, done in a reclined position you will explore the depths of your soul, your soul’s desire and flow through your fluid body.

Join me for this calming yoga nidra. I wrote this original script to target and activate your vagus nerve. Your vagus nerve is part of your autonomic nervous system. It plays a role in regulating your body’s internal environment, including your heart rate, digestion, breathing and immune response. It can support you in feeling less anxious and depressed. Through this guided meditation your nervous system will be calmed, reducing anxiety and depression and supporting an overall sense of well-being. Your sleep will also be supported. The guided meditation takes you through a rotation of parts of your body with a focus on your vagus nerve. This meditation is perfect for all levels of experience from beginner’s to advance. You do not need any prior yoga experience. You can choose whatever position you want for this meditation. In fact most people do it lying down. Enjoy the gift of restoration with this Vagus Nerve Yoga Nidra to Calm Your Nervous System. May this practice support you in feeling regulated so tha

You guys LOVED the first 45 minute Daily Hatha Yoga Routine 12 Poses You Should Do Daily | Yoga with Melissa 479. It has over 40K views and I hear from so many of you that you put it into your regular rotation. So, I decided to create a 30 minute version of daily hatha yoga poses that you should do everyday. The inversions, backbends, twists, forward folds, balancing poses, side bends and resting poses in this hatha yoga class will give you the most complete yoga class for your body that will attend both to your physical well-being and health, but also calm your mind, improve your emotional and mental well-being, give you more energy and leave you feeling rested. The resting postures in this class will recharge your batteries, release tension from your body, boost your immune system, relieve fatigue and help to deepen your breathing. There are poses in this class which will help to strengthen your legs, butt and glutes. Backbends will open up your chest and counteract rounded and poor postural habits from h

In this vagus nerve yoga class for morning we will become familiar with our vagus nerve and the vagal brake through breathing. This will allow our nervous systems to move flexibly through our day, to meet the demands of our day. When our nervous systems are flexible, the vagal brake can release to allow us to move into action and then have the resilience to return to ease and calm so that the challenges of life feel more doable. This yoga class focuses on stretching the adductors/inner thighs and hip flexors. We will practice several variations of warrior one pose and goddess victory squat throughout this vagus nerve yoga class for the morning. Vagus Nerve Restorative Yoga https://youtu.be/v5iNPPr9Bcw Vagus Nerve Exercises for Relaxation https://youtu.be/o7Qa4EqB-gc Vagus Nerve Massage for Stress & Anxiety Relief https://youtu.be/MMaWEUuwoZY Vagus Nerve Massage for Insomnia https://youtu.be/mZmJ_Sdks6M Become a Member https://www.melissawest.com/membership/

30 min Yin Yoga for Urinary Bladder Meridian | Energy Reserves & Purification This 30 minute yin yoga for your urinary bladder meridian will support you in building your energy reserves and purifying your body of toxins. Your urinary bladder meridian starts at the inner corners of your eyes, goes up and over your head, down either side of your spine, and down the backs of your legs.In this class we will focus on your urinary bladder meridian as a powerful meridian line for storing energy reserves and purification. Props Needed: wall, yoga strap, folded blanket, bolster 30 minute Yin Yoga Sequence for Urinary Bladder Meridian Eye yoga acupressure Locust Hand to big toe pose Caterpillar Savasana Poetry: Where Many Rivers Meet by David Whyte At the River Clarioin by Mary Oliver In Praise of Water by John O'Donohue   Yin yoga for HSP | Urinary Bladder Meridian-489 https://youtu.be/UzPck6DnMPE   Kidney and Bladder Meridians 21 https://youtu.be/U-D2QvteBgU   Qigong Flow for Water Element Kidney and B

Winter solstice occurs between December 20 and 22nd in the Northern hemisphere and June the 20 and 22nd in the Southern hemisphere. It represents the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Here we sink into the depths of darkness and most likely tiredness envelopes us. It is a perfect time of year to practice the rejuvenating restorative style of yoga. In this class we will focus on restorative yoga poses with props to renew our energy when the darkness and cold of winter envelopes us completely. Legs up the wall, restorative child’s pose, supported bridge pose and supported locust pose with draw your energy back into your kidney and adrenals, leaving your feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to welcome the slow return of the light. Winter solstice marks the beginning of water element season and winter. It is a season of darkness, mystery, and inner listening. The seasonal transitions is the theme of my forthcoming book. In this class we will resist the urge to prove that we accomplished some

In this 30 minute hatha yoga class Melissa West will connect you to the warrior archetype as part of her Masculine and Feminine Polarity Series. Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series, we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy. This 30 minute hatha yoga class will feature the warrior poses: warrior one, warrior two and warrior three as a way to connect with the sacred masculine warrior archetype. Balanced warrior energy provides the divine masculine with an unsurpassable power source which will fuel the inner masculine to

This restorative yoga class combines restorative yoga postures including reclined bound angle pose and simple, easy reclined flowing yoga poses to connect with our divine feminine energy and in particular our womb wisdom. Regardless of whether you have a womb or not, we can all connect with our womb wisdom. Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series, we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy. Through our wombs we can explore, express, release and reveal any emotions that have been lurking underneath, waiting to be seen. Anyth

Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. The masculine and feminine energies within us create polarity within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! Throughout this series, we will bring the unhealthy and wounded aspects of our masculine and feminine sides out of the shadows. The wounded masculine and feminine from our ego, fear and darkness and cause us to suffer. When we bring the light of awareness to the shadow sides of our masculine and feminine wounding, we can heal and transform into healthy and divine energy. In our wounded state, we may get triggered by an outside experience or person. The wounded masculine may feel: competitive, controlling, aggressive, withdrawing, intimidating or defensive. When we heal our emotional wounds and traumas, we are able to be present and compassionate with ourselves in difficult and triggering situations. Then the divine masculine is: supportive, present, focused, holds space, assertive, resilient, protects bounda

The push to hustle and grind is burning out the Divine feminine energy. We know our inner feminine is imbalanced when we experience ourselves pushing to be more productive and trying to make things happen. This leaves the feminine feeling tired and worn out. Perhaps you are feeling caught up in comparison and no longer feel like you can trust the mysterious unfolding of your life. This tension shows up as mistrust in your physical body, pain, and lack of self love and self nourishment. This yoga nidra will activate your Goddess energy to be release the wounded feminine. Regardless of our gender we all have masculine and feminine energy within us. When they are in balance and harmony we feel better! The feminine waters are restored through slowing down, rest, focusing internally and receiving nourishing energy. In short, by being rather than doing. This healing yoga nidra will soften and unwind the unconscious programming that the feminine could ever find their worth in productivity and allow you to unravel i