Advertise on podcast: Living your Yoga with Dr Melissa West

Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership  If strength training leaves you sore, depleted, or needing days to recover, this class is for you. You can build strength without burning out. You can get stronger. You can build strength without burning out. In this 30 minute gentle yoga class, we work with strength in a way your body can actually take in and respond to. You will move in a way that stays within your energy envelope, so you are building strength without triggering tension, over-effort, or flare ups. This class is for you if: strength workouts leave you exhausted or needing long recovery your body tightens when you try to build strength you are managing fatigue, pain, or low capacity you want to feel stronger in a way that supports your nervous system What you may notice after this class: your body feels stronger, but not depleted stronger joints with more integrity less gripping in your neck, shoulders, and jaw a gradual building of energy rather than crashing This is a different way of approaching strength. I love teaching my students to build capacity over time, instead of pushing through the messages of your body. If you want more support with this approach, including somatic movement education and myofascial release, you can join me inside the membership here: https://www.melissawest.com/membership   Poem: Almost Effortless by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Full Body Yin Deep Tissue Release for Pain & Tension YWM 759 Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership Tension and pain in your body often builds slowly. Hours at the computer. Tight hips from sitting. Neck and shoulder tension that creeps up into headaches. A jaw that never lets go. Over time your body starts to feel stiff, compressed, and tired. This Full Body Yin Yoga Deep Tissue Release for Pain & Tension practice gives your body the time and space it needs to soften those patterns. In this class we stay in poses longer so the deeper connective tissues of the body can respond. We allow your body to gradually release holding in the hips, spine, shoulders, and feet. As the muscles relax, the deeper tissues begin to rehydrate and regain resilience. You may notice: less tension in the neck and shoulders • more space in the hips and spine • relief from chronic tightness patterns • a calmer nervous system • your body feeling more open and supported This is a slow, grounding practice that helps unwind the accumulated effort we carry through the day. If this class helps your body feel better, inside our membership we go deeper with myofascial release and somatic movement education. These practices help you get to the root of the tension patterns so they do not keep returning. 💕 Join the membership here: https://www.melissawest.com/membership For members: Myofascial Release Classes https://www.members.melissawest.com/connective-tissue-practices-2/ Somatic Movement Education Classes https://www.members.melissawest.com/courses/somatics/ You can also find my Yin Yoga book here: https://melissawest.com/book/ Thank you for practicing with me.

Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership  Spring invites energy in the body to rise and move again after the quiet stillness of winter. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, this upward movement is governed by the Wood element and the Liver and Gallbladder meridians. When this energy flows smoothly we experience clarity, creativity, and inspired action. When it becomes constrained, it can show up as stress, headaches, irritability, migraines, neck tension, or PMS. This Spring Yin Yoga practice for the Liver and Gallbladder meridians gently opens the inner legs, hips, and side body where these pathways run. As you settle into longer held poses, the nervous system begins to downshift and space is created for qi to circulate more freely. Many students notice that pressure in the head softens, emotional tension settles, and the body feels lighter and more spacious. This class was taken directly from my book Five Element Yin Yoga and offers a seasonal practice designed to help you move with the natural rhythms of spring rather than pushing against them. You will experience: Release of tension along the side body and inner legs • Reduced pressure in the head, neck, and shoulders • Support for hormonal balance during spring • A calmer, more spacious nervous system • A sense of clarity and forward movement When we practice in harmony with the season, the rising energy of spring becomes supportive rather than overwhelming. Props Needed: Yoga Strap, blanket, bolster, Poem: Instructions on Not Giving Up - Ada Limón Continue the Practice This class is part of a complete 6 week Wood Element Yin Yoga course inside my membership where we explore the Liver and Gallbladder meridians in depth. 🌿 Wood Element Yin Yoga Course: https://www.members.melissawest.com/wood-element-course/ 💕 Join Our Membership Community: http://bit.ly/ywmmembership   My Book: This practice comes directly from my book. Get Five Element Yin Yoga here 🙏 https://melissawest.com/book/

Calming Vagus Nerve Yoga Nidra for Tired & Wired Nervous System | YWM 757 Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership If you feel exhausted but unable to settle… If your body is tired but your mind is still scanning… If you feel wired, tense, or overstimulated… This Yoga Nidra is designed to help your nervous system to downshift into regulation. This yoga nidra practice supports: Improved vagal tone • Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system • Relief from stress and anxiety • Enhanced mind-body awareness • Deeper rest and recovery • Reduced hypervigilance • Greater ease falling asleep • A more regulated nervous system baseline Through this yoga nidra you will train your nervous system to settle. Even a small shift matters. With repetition, this practice strengthens your capacity to move from wired and braced to steady and supported. Practice regularly to help your body learn how to return to regulation more quickly and with less effort. If you’d like deeper, progressive nervous system training, join us inside the membership community: https://melissawest.com/membership  

Vagus Nerve Restorative Yoga for Brain Fog & Deep Nervous System Reset | YWM 756 | 30 mins Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership If you are feeling foggy, mentally tired, or like your thoughts are moving through mud, this restorative yoga practice gives your nervous system the conditions it needs to reset. In this vagus nerve restorative yoga, we rest into fully supported postures to reduce background stress load and settle your mind. Many people notice that when your body is deeply supported, attention naturally becomes more clear. This is a slow practice designed to help you feel mentally clearer.  In this class you will: Settle your nervous system through supported restorative poses • Ease mental fatigue and reduce overwhelm • Support clearer attention and steadier energy • Create space for your mind to feel more open and focused This practice is especially helpful if you are experiencing: Brain fog or mental fatigue • Stress or cognitive overload • Feeling wired and tired • Difficulty focusing • A need for deep rest If you would like to go deeper, you are warmly invited to join my membership where we explore nervous system stabilization, restorative yoga, somatic movement education, and practices to build real capacity over time: 💕 Join here: http://bit.ly/ywmmembership Let me know in the comments how you feel after the practice. Your experience helps others know they are not alone. Members Link to Glymphatic Self Massage: https://www.members.melissawest.com/courses/yoga-for-cleansing-detox/glymphatic-self-massage-25-mins/ 

MORNING Yoga for VAGUS NERVE Regulation | Yoga with Melissa 755  Get my Yin Yoga Book 🙏👉https://melissawest.com/book/  💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership  Start your day with this 30 minute morning yoga practice focused on vagus nerve regulation and nervous system flexibility. In this vagus nerve yoga class, you will explore how breathing and movement support the vagal brake, the mechanism that helps regulate heart rate, breathing rhythm, digestion, and your ability to shift between activation and ease. As you move through this practice, you will experience how the nervous system can mobilize for action and then return to steadiness and calm. This flexibility helps daily challenges feel more manageable and supports sustainable energy throughout the day. This morning yoga class includes gentle vagus nerve stimulation through breath awareness, and mindful movement. The sequence focuses on releasing and strengthening the inner thighs, hip flexors, and pelvis while exploring variations of Warrior I and Goddess pose to build both stability and adaptability in your body and nervous system. This class is suitable if you are looking to reset your nervous system, support vagus nerve activation, and begin your day feeling grounded.  In this class you will explore: • Vagus nerve breathing exercises • Gentle vagus nerve stimulation through movement • Warrior I variations to build strength and regulation • Goddess pose and hip opening to release stored tension • Nervous system reset through slow, intentional yoga This Yoga with Melissa morning yoga practice supports nervous system awareness in a practical and embodied way, helping you carry steadiness and responsiveness into the rest of your day. Poem: A Great Shining by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

30 min Yoga Nidra for Deep Rest | Yoga with Melissa 754 AD-FREE Yoga Nidra Audios in our membership library:  https://melissawest.com/membership  This Yoga Nidra for Deep Rest is an invitation to step out of effort and allow your system to settle on its own. The practice is not demanding, guiding you into a state where thinking naturally quiets, your body softens, and vigilance eases without needing to focus, analyze, or try to relax. You may notice a sense of being held, supported, or gently organized from within, whether you remain awake, drift, or fall asleep. Nothing needs to happen for the practice to be effective. Over time, this kind of deep rest supports your nervous system in remembering how to stand down from constant readiness. You may  return to this Yoga Nidra when you feel tired but wired, emotionally full, physically depleted, or simply in need of a rest. The effects tend to unfold quietly, influencing sleep, energy, and how you move through your day, without needing to track or manage the outcome. AD-FREE Yoga Nidra Audios in our membership library: https://melissawest.com/membership

Yin Yoga for Tight Hips & Low Back | Slow Release for Tension | YWM 753 Over 1, 000 videos in our membership library https://melissawest.com/membership  This yin yoga class is designed to gently ease tight hips and lower back through long, supported poses that allow your body to soften rather than brace. We will gradually open the hips from multiple angles and release common holding patterns around the pelvis and spine. Instead of pushing for flexibility, you will give your joints, muscles, and connective tissue time to relax, which helps reduce stiffness, gripping, and that familiar sense of compression in the low back. Over the course of the class, many students notice less pulling in the hips, more ease when standing or walking, and a quieter, more settled feeling in the lower back. This yin yoga for hips and lower back supports long-term comfort, not just a short stretch. The practice helps your body stop compensating through the spine when the hips are tight, which can ease ongoing lower back pain and tension. If you are looking for yin yoga that feels slow, grounded, and genuinely supportive, this class offers a calm, steady way to restore ease and mobility in your hips and low back. Poem: I Thought This Was a Poem about a Lemon by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Over 1, 000 videos in our membership library https://melissawest.com/membership 

Restorative Yoga for a CALM NERVOUS SYSTEM | Yoga with Melissa 752 For more nervous system healing: Link to sign up: https://melissawest.com/membership This 60-minute restorative yoga class is designed to calm your nervous system. Through restorative yoga with props we will move your nervous system from sympathetic activation, stress and anxiety to a state of calm. This is restorative yoga for the nervous system, oriented toward parasympathetic settling. This restorative yoga is designed to calm you down. This is a full restorative yoga 1 hour practice designed for nervous system regulation and healing.  This class sits inside a larger framework I teach in my membership through the 1 month Settle Your Nervous System program. That program looks at how activation shows up across the body, thoughts, speech, and daily actions, and how regulation is rebuilt slowly over time. If this restorative yoga class resonates, the program offers a way to work with nervous system healing.  Link for members: https://www.members.melissawest.com/roadmap/nervous-system-stabilization-settle-your-nervous-system/ Link to sign up: https://melissawest.com/membership

Transitioning into Winter’s Deep Rest Yoga Nidra | Yoga with Melissa 751 💕Join Our Membership Community 💕http://bit.ly/ywmmembership  Receive emails from me: https://bit.ly/melissamail As the light fades and winter draws us inward, this Yoga Nidra supports a deliberate transition into long, deep rest. Winter is a gestation phase, a return to the dark where energy gathers and reorganizes. In nature, hibernation is a biological necessity. Bears slow their heart rates, breathe less often, and conserve life force so that renewal becomes possible. We carry the same seasonal intelligence. When we choose rest, our cells repair, our immune system recalibrates, and the nervous system settles into coherence. This practice invites you to question the cultural push toward constant output and instead attune to stillness, intuition, patience, and the quiet reset that winter naturally offers. Before you settle in, create your own hibernation den. Dim the lights. Support your body with a pillow or bolster under your knees if needed. Add a blanket for warmth and an eye pillow to help you drop into the winter darkness. This Yoga Nidra is a sanctuary for retreat, restoration, and receiving. As you rest, you align with the earth’s rhythm rather than resisting it. Choosing deep rest in winter is not withdrawal; it’s participation in a larger cycle. It’s a way of honouring your place in nature and letting your body remember its own timing. I’m enjoying the winter section of my book right now: Five Element Yin Yoga. Go to the blue tabs for water element and winter. Book: ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/ 

75-Minute ULTIMATE Restorative YIN for Deepest Nervous System REST 🎂 YWM 750 Month Long Nervous System Program in Membership https://melissawest.com/membership This 75 minute Ultimate Restorative Yin for Deepest Nervous System Rest brings together what the research is clear about: long, supported yin shapes plus slow, coherent breathing reliably shift the body into parasympathetic physiology. This is the foundation of a true nervous system reset. Practices like extended exhale breathing and coherent breath strengthen vagal tone, increase HRV, and downshift amygdala activation, which is why yin yoga is so effective for people who feel drained, wired, overwhelmed, or “fried.” Through interoceptive awareness, gentle vagus nerve stimulation, and repeated micro moments of safety, your system learns a calmer baseline. This yin yoga class with luxurious holds is designed to help you experience that shift directly. You will be guided through a sequence that uses the physiology of rest. Each long hold works with your vagus nerve, your interoceptive pathways, and your natural regulatory reflexes so your system can shift out of chronic fight, flight, or collapse and into ease, clarity, and emotional steadiness.  Research on gentle somatic and trauma-informed yoga shows measurable improvements in autonomic regulation, mood, and stress resilience, even for people who have been overwhelmed for years. This practice treats yin yoga as nervous system training rather than stretching. As we celebrate 750 episodes, I would love to hear from you: Which of our 750 practices was a turning point in your life, and why? If you want to go deeper, we have a month-long nervous system program in our membership exploring what it means to have a flexible, adaptable nervous system. Your system is designed to move between different states depending on the demands of your life. Learning how to transition smoothly between safety and connection, sympathetic activation, and dorsal shutdown is a core skill for resilience. Inside the membership, this becomes an embodied, practical exploration supported by classes, discussions, and guided practices. Join us and begin learning how to navigate your states with more clarity, stability, and ease. Poem: Only when I am Not Rushing by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Props: wall, blocks, bolster, blanket https://melissawest.com/membership

NOURISHING Beginner Yin Yoga to SOOTHE STRESS & RESET Your NERVOUS SYSTEM | YWM 749 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership Book: ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/ Welcome to Yoga with Melissa 749! Join me for this NOURISHING Beginner Yin Yoga session designed to SOOTHE STRESS and guide a full RESET** for your NERVOUS SYSTEM. This is a gentle yoga for anxiety practice that helps your body release deep-seated tension. This slow-paced, therapeutic yin yoga class is perfect for beginners or anyone seeking a powerful, healing yoga experience. We'll focus on poses that gently open the hips and back, key areas for holding stress, while naturally activating your parasympathetic nervous system. By holding these shapes, we stimulate the vagus nerve to foster deep regulation, relaxation and a calm mind. Use this time to unplug, find inner peace, and release emotional tension from your body. Timeline: Figure Four Pose Child’s Pose Reclined Twist Butterfly Forward Fold (Half Butterfly) Legs up the Wall Savasana  Props: Wall, bolster, 2 blocks, blanket, (options will be given if you don’t have these) Poem: A Prayer for Everyday  by Julia Fehrenbacher

Restorative Yoga & Breathwork for when you feel 😩DRAINED 🥱YWM 748 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership Book: ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/ When you’re feeling emotionally exhausted, overstimulated, or simply too tired to push through another thing, this Restorative Yoga and Breathwork for when you feel drained offers a cozy space to rest deeply and recover your energy. In this 60-minute Melissa West restorative yoga class, we’ll combine gentle breathwork and fully supported postures using props like a bolster, blankets, and pillows to help your nervous system shift from depletion to calm. You’ll soften tension in your low back, slow your breathing, and reconnect to an inner sense of safety and peace. This restorative yoga for overwhelm and burnout is designed to help you melt stress, soothe your emotions, and reset your nervous system. It’s perfect as a restorative yoga for emotional healing, a restorative yoga for anxiety, or simply a cozy restorative yoga session at the end of a long day. Whether you’re practicing for peace, nervous system regulation, or emotional renewal, this class will guide you back to grounded presence. 🕯️🌙 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership Book: ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/

🌅MORNING YOGA to START YOUR DAY in the COZY AUTUMN🍁 & ❄️WINTER months Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership Book: ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/ Welcome to this morning yoga to start your day with me, Melissa West 🌅 In the darker, shorter days of autumn and winter, it can be hard to get moving. This gentle morning yoga to wake up sequence is designed to help you ease into your day.. Through soft, mindful stretches, you’ll awaken your body, open your lungs, and bring circulation to your whole system so you can begin your day feeling balanced, and centered. This beginner-friendly morning yoga routine includes cozy movements to stretch stiffness, boost energy, and help you feel good in your body as you move from rest into action. This autumn morning yoga and winter morning yoga flow invites you to meet the day at your own pace. You could practice this in your pajamas! ✨ Deepen your seasonal practice In my membership, I guide you through yoga practices that align with the rhythms of the seasons, helping your body and nervous system stay in harmony all year long. Join here ➡️ https://www.melissawest.com/membership 📘 Explore the 5 Elements through Yin Yoga In my book 5 Element Yin Yoga, autumn corresponds with the Metal Element (white section) and winter with the Water Element (blue section). Discover how each season supports your energy, emotions, and overall well-being ➡️ https://melissawest.com/book/

30 minute BEGINNER PILATES to Wake Up & Strengthen Your Core |YWM 746 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership  This beginner morning Pilates class is designed to wake you up and help you connect with your core in a way that feels grounded, kind, and sustainable. My intention is to make Pilates accessible for everyone, whether you’re new to it, rebuilding strength, or looking for a more mindful approach that honors your body’s limits.  In my own experience, many real-life classes move too fast or expect you to already be strong enough to keep up. They’re often expensive, and lack modifications, so I find I end up with neck pain or even migraines. This class is my offering to bridge that gap so you can experience the benefits of Pilates without strain and I will slowly build while offering lots of modifications and options. We’ll move gently through foundational Pilates exercises that engage your core, wake up your spine, and bring strength and mobility into your morning. You’ll build warmth from the inside out while staying connected to your breath and body. My aspiration is that this practice helps you feel stronger and more at home in your body, while also reminding you that accessible, high-quality movement doesn’t need to be expensive.