Top 5 Little Known Yoga Channels You Need to Follow Summer 2021  In this video my friend Matt Depuis and I are going to share with you some of our favourite heart centered yoga teachers who are sharing their yoga on YouTube that you may not have come across because they are “smaller” channels. These are teachers that are generously sharing their teachings on YouTube on a regular schedule, that have good sound and lighting and are offering high quality instruction. In this video we will...

Balancing Fire Element Fire element is the most yang of all the five elements. It is outward and expansive. Fire element people get their energy from being with other people. Today we are going to talk to one of my yoga students, Magdalena, who recently participated in one of our membership challenges and courses. Magdalena has a lot of fire and earth element in her. She will share with you how she approached the fire element course and brought balance and harmony to her fire...

Back Massage Chair Pad Review This video is an unboxing and review of the RENPHO Back Massager with Heat, Shiatsu Rolling Chair Massage Pad for Full Back Shoulder Neck, Height Adjustable, Massage Cushion with Heat for Full Body Fatigue Relief for Relax.  The portable massage chair combines shiatsu, kneading, rolling,vibration and heat functions to help you eliminate fatigue, stress and relieve muscle pain. The neck height is adjustable. The back and neck massage chair features 4 unique...

Food Therapy Kim Ashton and I met in a Yin Yoga Facebook group over a discussion about 5 element theory. Kim does something fascinating called: Qi Food Therapy.  In this interview we will talk about 5 element theory and the energetics of food.  I will ask her:  * What is food energetics?  * What is food therapy?  * How does food energetics and food therapy affect our emotions?  * How does five element theory intersect with food?  We also talk about anxiety, insomnia...

How to be an Authentic Person Today on Yoga Lifestyle with Melissa I am going to be interviewing an incredible human being that I discovered on YouTube through my love of oracle and tarot cards. Stormie Atlantis drew me in through her honest and raw authentic expression.  So today I am going to talk to her about:  Never have I ever Tarot on Arcane Panda  How to be authentically yourself?  How to be authentic on YouTube?  How to be authentic and confident?   How to be...

minimal cues yoga class vs. yoga classes In this video I am going to be talking about which is better: minimal cues yoga class vs. yoga classes with instruction. These are my thoughts and experiences on what is a minimal cues class, who they are for, when they are beneficial, why they are beneficial and why you would want to practice them. I am also going to talk about the place of yoga classes with instruction. This video will cover: What is a minimal cues yoga class? Who is a...

Prevent Constipation with Yoga In this video I share with you a more holistic approach to preventing constipation with yoga, one that focuses on the physical, mental and emotional bodies. There are physical postures that support us in preventing constipation and when we combine them with mindful intention and support for our mental body the healing potential of yoga is quite inspiring. In this video I will talk about some of the mental and emotional reasons why constipation happens and...

Today’s video is about setting healthy boundaries for a balanced heart. A few weeks ago I released a social media post about tending to our “gates” Do you tend to your gates? Where in your life have you left your gate unintentionally open so that perhaps unconsciously energy is unintentionally flowing in and out without you even being aware of it? I’m talking about creating and maintaining secure boundaries within yourself that clearly express when you want to open your gate and when...

How to Clear Your Mind with Yoga In this short video I am going to share with you how to clear your mind with yoga. I will show you which yoga poses work best to clear your mind. We will explore both the best types of yoga postures and the best yoga pose to clear your mind. This short demonstration with a yoga pose to clear your mind will help with brain fog and will cleanse your mind with a yoga pose.

Clear your mind We live in a world of noise, excess information, and overwhelm. We are often overloaded , with too much of a good thing and our bodies, minds, emotions, energy and spirits cannot possibly adapt. The result is anxiety, insomnia, poor memory, confusion, brain fog, difficulty poor concentrating and a hard time prioritizing what is important to us. In this video I am going to show you a simple and quick 3 minute guided breathing exercise that will support you in clearing...

In this interview I have the honour of interviewing Norman Blair, author of Brightening Our Inner Skies: Yin and Yoga. I know Norman Blair as a yin yoga teacher and author of one of my most beloved and used yin yoga books: Brightening Our Inner skies. I personally go between 2 yin yoga books - Sarah Powers Insight Yoga and his Brightening Your Inner Skies. Of course, Sarah Powers wrote the forward for his Brightening Your inner Skies.  What I love about Norman Blair is the way that he...

Top 5 Little Known Yoga Channels In this video my friend, and fellow yin yoga teacher, Matt Depuis and I are going to share with you some of our favourite heart centered yoga teachers who are sharing their yoga on YouTube that you may not have come across because they are “smaller” channels. These are teachers that are generously sharing their teachings on YouTube on a regular schedule, that have good sound and lighting and are offering high quality instruction. In this video we will share...

In this video I share 5 tips for transitioning from beginner to intermediate level classes: 1 Foundational Knowledge of Yoga Poses 2 Knowledge of How to Modify Yoga Poses 3. Knowledge of Props and You have Yoga Props you can use 4. Ability to look after yourself - avoid injury 5. Inner Sovereignty

Divine Feminine We all have masculine and feminine energy within us. In order to balance our masculine and feminine energy it is helpful to spend some time cultivating our divine feminine energy. It is no secret that most of our lives are spent in our masculine energy: focused on productivity, logic, actions and results. This is why I have recently spent a lot of time awakening the divine feminine energy in my own yoga practice and bringing those qualities into my teachings more and...

Trying a Vibrating Massage Ball for Pec Release and Shoulder Pain  10 Days of Yoga for Highly Sensitive People https://melissawest.com/hsp/  Join Our Membership Community http://bit.ly/ywmmembership  In this short video I will explain how vibrating massage balls work to reduce symptoms of delayed onset muscle soreness and how they create a neurological response to help increase range of motion. Both of these benefits of using massage balls and vibrating massage balls could be of...

Top 5 Little Known Yoga Channels You Need to Follow Winter 2021  In this video my friend Matt Depuis and I are going to share with you some of our favourite heart centered yoga teachers who are sharing their yoga on YouTube that you may not have come across because they are “smaller” channels. These are teachers that are generously sharing their teachings on YouTube on a regular schedule, that have good sound and lighting and are offering high quality instruction. In this video we will...

Yoga Mudra for Constipation: Mahatrika Mudra Today I am going to show you how to do the mahatrika mudra to relieve pelvic congestion and constipation. So if you have abdominal cramping, are straining to have a bowel movement, or feel as though there is something preventing you from having a bowel movement stay with us for this simple and natural way to relieve your constipation. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable or in pain. How long should you practice this mudra for? You are...

The Yin and Yang of a Daily Yoga Practice In this video I am going to talk to you about balancing the yin and yang energies in our daily yoga practice. What is yin and what is yang and why would we want to think about balancing them in our daily yoga practice. We tend to live in a yang dominant culture. One that values competition, goal-setting, being in action, focuses on performance and growth, and moving towards peak experience. When yang is at its fullest expression bigger is better...

3 Ways to Let Go of Perfectionism in Your Daily Yoga Practice 3 mindful and supportive ways that you can organically breathe into your life that will allow you to let go of perfectionism as easily as you exhale. 1. Become aware of the ordinary moments in your body 2. Make choices that support your well-being 3. Make space for uncertainty In our membership community, I created a brand new 10 minute Daily Yoga reset that will support you in letting go of the inner pusher and...

How to Start and Maintain a Daily Yoga Practice  53% of my yoga students say their goal for their yoga in 2021 is to start or maintain a daily yoga practice. This is over becoming more flexible or stronger with a yoga practice.  In this video I will share with you 3 tips for starting and maintaining a daily yoga practice that are different from other YouTube videos. We will not talk about creating a physical space, but the mental space required for a yoga practice. We will talk...

Daily Yoga for Balance : Activate These 3 Things Daily to Improve Your Balance  Today we are going to talk about three things you want to do daily to improve your balance with yoga.  #1. Activate Your Vestibular System. This is just a fancy way of saying engage your inner ear. Your inner ear sense information about motion, equilibrium and spatial orientation. This information is collected in your inner ear by the utricle, saccule and three semicircular canals.  Your utricle and...

Eye Yoga Doesn’t Work - The Way You Think it Does  So many people want to know how to improve their eyesight with yoga. When it comes down to improving our vision at home naturally we want to know:  Will it really work? How long will it take to work? Will I be able to get rid of my glasses? Will I be able to get rid of astigmatism?  So first of all, let’s look at my scope of practice. I am a yoga instructor with a Ph.D. in communications and cultural studies. Which means I can show...

I failed at Maintaining a Daily Yoga Practice: How I’m Recovering  This video is about how to develop, commit and maintain a daily yoga practice in a way that is kind, compassionate and sustainable.  Over the last couple of months I’ve completely failed to commit to and maintain and daily yoga practice. Maybe you’ve been through periods like this in your own yoga journey. In this video I am going to share with you the road to my recovery and how the act of failing at keeping my yoga...

What to do on Vancouver Island: Tofino and Ucluelet I know we are all on lockdown right now and I don’t know about you, but for me, it is causing my mental health to suffer. For the next few weeks in BC we have been asked to stay in place in our own cities. We went on this family trip before that mandate was in place. A few nights ago, Tim asked me to imagine where I would like to go in the future. Because of the increased restrictions my mind had gone into a fixed mindset. Just the...

Constipation Relief If you do this one thing before your yoga poses for constipation your constipation will be relieved with much greater ease. You probably already know the yoga poses that will relieve your constipation, the poses that will put pressure on your colon, the poses that will twist your colon and the poses that will relax your colon. But do you know the secrets that yogis have been using every morning prior to doing their yoga that helps to aid with elimination in addition...