Yoga with Melissa

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/

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.

Yin Yoga for TIGHT HIPS | Yoga with Melissa 745  Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership ✉️ Receive emails from me ✉️  https://bit.ly/melissamail  Meet the deep tension that gathers in your hips with this yin yoga class. Through long-held, floor-based poses, you’ll explore the principles of Yin Yoga: choosing an appropriate edge, softening, being still, and staying awhile. These four anchors guide your body to release resistance, deepen your breath and downshift your nervous system into safety. As the connective tissues around your hips, pelvis, and lower back begin to hydrate and unwind, space and ease naturally return to your movement and breath. Energetically, the practice supports the smooth flow of Qi through the Liver, Gallbladder, and Kidney meridians that run through the hips and inner thighs. These pathways are linked with flexibility, emotional release, and grounded vitality. This yin yoga for tight hips is designed to gently unwind deep-seated tension and restore mobility through the hips and pelvis. Invite your body to release long-held tightness in the fascia and connective tissues that surround the hip joints. The extended holds allow these tissues to rehydrate and regain elasticity, improving circulation, nourishing the joints, and expanding your natural range of motion. Beyond the physical release, Yin Yoga supports your nervous system in shifting out of stress and into a state of deep rest. As your body settles, your parasympathetic response is activated, calming the mind and dissolving habitual guarding patterns.  Poem: In the Quiet After by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Props: Blocks, Blanket, Bolster  Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership ✉️ Receive emails from me ✉️  https://bit.ly/melissamail

Melt Away Stress | Cozy Restorative Yoga | YWM 744 Settle into deep calm with this cozy restorative yoga class designed to help you unwind and destress. Through gentle, supported postures and slow, steady breathing, you’ll soothe your nervous system and create space for ease. This class offers a soft landing for when life feels full, helping you release layers of tension, anxiety, and overwhelm while grounding back into the body’s natural rhythm of rest and repair. As you linger in each pose, your body will begin to melt open, your mind will quiet, and your breath will lead you toward peace. This is your invitation to slow down, to reconnect with the quiet underneath the noise, and to experience true anxiety relief. Perfect for evenings or anytime you need a reset, this restorative practice helps you return to balance, supported, soothed, and deeply at ease. Props Needed: bolster, block, chair Poems: Between the Lines by Jeff Foster (adapted) Tree by Jane Hirschfield Sitting in a Quiet Room by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer January by Betty Adcock

This ROOT CHAKRA VAGUS NERVE YOGA is SO nourishing 🌿 safety, calm + ease in your body | YWM 743 Full month vagus nerve + nervous system practices inside ➡️ https://melissawest.com/membership When life feels like it’s rushing you forward and your body responds with tightening, bracing, and agitation, this Root Chakra Vagus Nerve Yoga practice will help you slow down and reconnect to safety. Fear, rushing, fixing, and the feeling of being wired or overstimulated are all signs of sympathetic activation in the nervous system. This class is designed for anyone who wants to shift out of fight-or-flight and back into calm, ease, and resourcing. If you struggle with anxiety, low back tension, digestive discomfort, or a constant scanning for “what’s wrong,” this practice will support you in softening those patterns and coming home to your body. In this nourishing class we’ll connect the Root Chakra and Vagus Nerve through gentle movement, grounding awareness, and emotional regulation. Like the roots of a plant, your root chakra invites you to reach down into the ground for nourishment and stability. By pairing this with vagus nerve yoga you’ll invite your body into a state of calm where you can not only survive, but thrive. This practice is ideal for beginners and experienced students alike who want a safe, grounding, and resourcing yoga class. Join me, Melissa West, for this root chakra yoga for beginners, hatha yoga, and vagus nerve reset yoga to experience safety, calm, and ease in your body. 🌿 If you love this class, I’ve dedicated an entire month to the vagus nerve and nervous system inside our Revive and Thrive Incubator. You’ll find a full library of practices designed to restore balance, regulation, and resilience. Become a member today ➡️ https://melissawest.com/membership

Autumn Yoga Nidra | Yoga with Melissa 742  Prepare to Conserve Your Energy this Autumn: https://melissawest.com/membership  This Melissa West Yoga Nidra for Autumn is a 30-minute yoga nidra meditation created to help you align with the natural rhythm of the fall season. In autumn, nature turns inward light fades, leaves fall, and the season reminds us of impermanence and the preciousness of our human life. This autumn yoga nidra invites you to let go of busy-ness, productivity, and the weight of what no longer serves you. By releasing into stillness, you create space for renewal and conservation of energy, preparing for the deeper rest of winter. Whether you are searching for Melissa West Yoga Nidra for autumn sleep, fall yoga nidra, or yoga nidra for sleep, this practice will guide you into profound restoration. As you rest, your nervous system is gently restored, your energy conserved, and your body attuned to the wisdom of the season. Allow yourself to be supported as you plant seeds of stillness and clarity that will carry you through the months ahead. If you feel called to go deeper, our REST Incubator will support you in preparing to conserve your energy this autumn season, offering you a container of practices, guidance, and community: https://melissawest.com/membership Already a member? This is the perfect season to take advantage of your REST incubator: https://www.members.melissawest.com/r-e-s-t-incubator/

GENTLE PILATES for BEGINNERS | At-home Mat Pilates (No Equipment) YWM 741 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership  Discover the foundations of Pilates in a way that is truly accessible for complete beginners. This gentle, mat-based class is designed to support your body and your nervous system, offering a calm and steady introduction you can return to anytime. With no equipment required, you’ll be guided step by step through simple movements that build strength and stability while keeping your body and mind at ease. Together, we’ll explore five key principles of Pilates in a supportive way: awareness of sensation, guiding your movement with care, centering from your core, attunement to your body’s feedback, and breathing that feels natural and unforced. These principles create a safe, steady foundation so you can move with more clarity, confidence, and connection.

Post-Walk Yoga Stretch | Ideal for 10,000-Step Days | YWM 740 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership If you walk 10,000 steps a day, this beginner-friendly yoga for walkers class is the perfect way to recover, release tension, and keep your goal of walking 10 000 steps a day. This yoga for walking sequence includes walking stretches and walking stretching exercises designed specifically for after you walk. We’ll focus on walking stretches that relieve muscle soreness in your lower body and open your upper body for better posture. This class includes after walking stretches like a walking quad stretch, walking hamstring stretch, walking calf stretch, hip flexor release, glute and IT band stretches, plus simple myofascial release for your feet to care for your plantar fascia. This walking stretching workout supports the muscles most active during walking while also helping you stand with better posture. Alongside the lower body focus, you’ll open your chest and shoulders to counteract rounding from long walks or daily posture habits. If you’re looking for walker’s stretch to support a 10,000 steps stretching session, or walking yoga for beginners, you’ll find this routine will help with those sore muscles. Practice it after walking to keep your 10, 000 step walking routine sustainable. In this class, I introduce some MFR (myofascial release) techniques, and inside our membership community I go into much more depth with many more videos to support your connective tissue health. Members can access all of these here: https://www.members.melissawest.com/connective-tissue-practices-2/ Not a member yet? Join here: https://melissawest.com/membership

Wake up your whole body and feel your best with this energizing morning yoga practice. In this class, you’ll move through a dynamic flow designed to open your hips, lengthen tight hamstrings, strengthen your core, and challenge your balance. You’ll also work on releasing tension from your upper back and shoulders, helping you start the day with more ease, freedom, and vitality. This well-rounded sequence combines strength, mobility, and mindful movement so you can feel both grounded and uplifted when you step off the mat. This class is perfect for mornings when you want to boost circulation, improve posture, and bring your mind into sharp, present focus. Whether you’re easing into your day or preparing for a busy schedule ahead, the intentional combination of hip openers, balancing poses, and targeted strength work will leave you feeling centered, mobile, and strong. Grab a block, roll out your mat, and let’s practice together. Poem: The Once Invisible Garden by Laura Foley Props: Yoga Block and strap

Calming Vagus Nerve Yoga | Hatha into Yin Practice YWM 738 Membership ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership The intention behind this class is to start standing to down regulate your nervous system from a state of activation into a state of regulation so that you can be more comfortable being still. If you come to your yoga mat, especially a class where there is a lot of stillness like yin yoga or restorative yoga and you find a lot of restlessness, it is incredibly important to move that trapped or repressed energy through first before you become still. Then it will be more comfortable when you are still.  This combination of hatha followed by yin gives the space to downregulate your nervous system, to release the excess energy that wants to fight or run away to prepare you to become still. So we will start standing with standing postures that release excess energetic tension from the body and gradually make our way to some seated yin yoga poses to be more comfortable in stillness. This is a great practice to release the day, at the end of the day to prepare for bed so you can make that gradual transition from alert and maybe even buzzy to prepare your body to relax, rest and restore through sleep.  Props Needed: Yoga Strap, blanket Poem: The Crystal Gazer by Sarah Teasdale  We have 22 vagus nerve classes in our membership designed to navigate regulating your nervous system with yoga.  Here’s a link for members: https://www.members.melissawest.com/courses/ventral-vagus-activation/  Here’s a link to become a member:  ➡️  https://www.melissawest.com/membership