Living your Yoga with Dr Melissa West

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.

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

Restorative Yoga When Sick 🤧| Yoga with Melissa 737 This restorative yoga class is designed for when you're under the weather, whether it’s a cold like I have or your immune system is struggling. Every pose is supported to help ease congestion and exhaustion, with your head elevated to reduce sinus pressure and gentle postures that encourage lymphatic drainage in the armpits and groin. Throughout the practice, you'll be guided by the poetry of Jeff Foster, his words offer a kind of presence that meets your illness with softness rather than resistance. This class will give you the  permission to rest rather than feel any need to push through.  Yoga for Immunity Videos on YouTube Best Video to Prevent Illness Before You Get Sick – Immunity Boost This class is designed to support your immune system by activating your thymus, spleen, and lymphatic pathways while strengthening your energetic boundaries. You’ll finish the class feeling more resilient and grounded. 🔗 Members: Click Here Best Yoga Videos Once You Are Sick Yoga for Recuperation Series: Restorative Yoga for Illness Acceptance – 36 mins Yoga Nidra for Healing – 32 mins (member favourite) Yoga for your Spleen – 25 mins Yoga for your Thymus and Tonsils – 23 mins 🔗 Members: Click Here I also love our lymphatic massage videos for prevention and recovery:  🔗 Members: Click Here 🧘‍♀️ Become a Member: https://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

This MORNING YOGA is SO GOOD ✨ bright, easy + lingers all day | YWM 736 Join our Membership: https://melissawest.com/membership Wake up this morning with a bright, easy, hatha yoga class that will linger all day! This class will open your hips and hamstrings, and release your spine and shoulders. The class builds to variations on triangle pose. There are also some great core strengthening exercises, invigorating breath practices to energize you for the day and a fun forward fold sequence to round out the class. If you are looking for a 45 minute hatha yoga class for your morning routine, I’ve got you covered.  Want more like this?  Our membership library with over 1,000 ad-free videos, has an entire Morning Yoga section and monthly calendars to support your daily practice. Join us here: https://melissawest.com/membership Poem: Savasana  In Less Than Fifteen Minutes Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer  Props Needed: Yoga Strap, Block

This beginner hatha yoga class is actually doable. Designed in my real yoga for real people supportive style, this class invites you to slow down. Don’t worry, this class has only simple movements and an unhurried pace. You’ll find a spaciousness in each posture. You don’t need any previous experience or any props. Expect a kind and confidence-building approach that doesn’t rush or overwhelm. You’ll move through foundational poses that relieve stress and tension, restore your energy, and leave you feeling more at ease in your body. This class is both relaxing and low-effort and is suitable for beginners, but I think my more seasoned students will appreciate its simplicity as well! Oh! And for those of you who are looking for a morning yoga class, this is a great class to start your day. Poem: U PICK by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

10 minute Yoga Nidra Full Body Scan | Yoga with Melissa 734 Membership ➡️ https://www.melissawest.com/membership This 10 minute yoga nidra is a short guided practice that will take you through a full body scan. In this 10-minute Yoga Nidra, I’ll guide you through a deeply restorative body scan to help you feel both grounded and renewed. Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation that supports your nervous system and offers profound rest. It can be especially helpful for insomnia, anxiety, stress, adrenal fatigue, and more. In this practice, you’ll be invited into a state of conscious rest physically relaxed, mentally calm, and emotionally at ease, while staying awake and aware. You’ll gently move through waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states, all while anchored in the present moment. This guided meditation often brings clarity, stillness, and spacious insight. Research suggests that an hour of Yoga Nidra may be as restorative as four hours of deep sleep. In just ten minutes, allow your body to release tension, your breath to soften, and your awareness to settle into calm. 🌿 Ready to go deeper into rest, renewal, and nervous system nourishment? Join us for our month-long REST incubator inside the membership, where you'll be supported with daily restorative practices and a space to truly exhale. Membership ➡️ https://www.melissawest.com/membership You can find my full yoga nidra playlist on youtube here: Yoga Nidra Playlist  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhoiKGTgfb0&list=PLdFcYtDajz23N4cwJUNgJtFsV0wyz7L-D