Yoga Lifestyle with Melissa

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 us...

Frozen Shoulder During the pain phase of frozen shoulder there have been 3 things that have helped me most with the pain. I thought I would share them with you here today. 1. Tens Machine Amazon.com https://amzn.to/2GCFept Amazon.ca https://amzn.to/36hr6uv 2. Moist Heating Pad Amazon.com https://amzn.to/3kaUg3o Amazon.ca https://amzn.to/36a7CYS 3. Frozen Shoulder Pulley to Gently Increase Mobility...

You Won’t Believe the Wildlife We Saw on Our First Day in Jasper National Park Join us on our road trip from Victoria B.C. to go camping in Wapiti Campground at Jasper National Park. Our trip begins at Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal in Victoria BC with a short crossing over to Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal in Vancouver BC. We had a short stop at Harveston Mill in Chilliwack BC to meet on of my yoga student...

Yoga and Poetry: Poetry as Meditative Practice I received some wonderful questions on my YouTube channel the other day from Jessica. She asks: I’m curious how you read poetry. I borrowed a Mary Oliver book from the library and started reading it. It doesn’t impact me the same way they do when you read them in class. Any tips? Flip open to a random page? Read from start to finish ? Thanks, Melissa....

How to Plan a Daily Yoga Practice Today we are going to talk about how to plan a daily yoga practice. Barb’s question: I would like to start doing a daily yoga practice. I would like to do Hatha some days, Yin other days etc. I have done some of the courses like the daily hatha yoga, yoga for strength and monthly themes. Wondering if you have any curated lists on the membership site of various epi...

Horne Lake Caves In today’s vlog we are going on an adventure: a guided tour of Horne Lake Caves, just north of Parksville on on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It is approximately a two and a half hour drive from Victoria B.C. Our guide was so knowledgeable and hilariously entertaining as well. We climbed deep down into the depths of the earth and learned so much about life forms that haven...

Discovering Nelson BC and the Kootenays Summer 2020 In this vlog, using Nelson B.C. as our base we take a little roadtrip around the Kootenays. If you love West Coast scenery then you are going to love this travel vlog. Join us as we drive through the mountains, beside Kootenay Lake. Our first stop was beautiful Coffee Creek. Fletcher Falls was our next destination: the falls and the view of Koote...

Qigong and Mudra Flow for Eczema + Skin Eczema Cream Scentuals Unscented Hand Cream In this video I will share with you one of my favourite creams to strengthen the boundary of your skin to repair and prevent eczema before I show you a qigong mudra flow to strengthen the boundary of your skin and a mudra to relieve dry skin and eczema. A few months ago, in the middle of March 2020, at the beginnin...

Road Trip In this vlog we take you along for the 12-13 hour drive from Victoria B.C. to Nelson B.C. This includes our ferry crossing from Swartz Bay terminal in Victoria B.C. from the Tsawwassen terminal in Vancouver.  The scenery through the mountains is incredible. We get to drive through Manning Provincial Park, the Okanagan Valley, Osoyoos. The Okanagan valley is known for its fruit. We stoppe...

Come to Dance Class with Me! How Awkward? In this vlog I am going to take you behind the scenes of Marvin’s Afro Dance class at Studio 4 Athletics in Victoria B.C. This is the gym that Tim and I lift weights at several times a week. In addition to personal training and working the front desk, Marvin teaches this dance class once a week. When he invited Tim and I to come we of course said yes! The...

2 Ways to Relieve Constipation and Back Pain with Yoga Stretches If you suffer from constipation and back pain, I am going to show you two yoga stretches in this short video to relieve your constipation and your back pain. Constipation is anything less than three bowel movements in a week. The blockage in your colon puts pressure on your lower back and can cause back pain in addition to the consti...

How to Sit Cross Legged Without Knee Pain - The Secret! If you have tight hips and you experience knee pain when trying to sit cross legged for yoga or meditation then let me let you in on a well known secret. In the yoga and meditation world, we use props to support our joints so that we don’t experience pain. When ungloo reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to try out their triangle shaped...

Are You Still Making this Constipation Mistake? Even if you are doing Yoga? I have been offering viewers of this channel constipation yoga exercises on this channel since 2013. The YouTube videos that I have filmed to relieve constipation with yoga are some of my most popular videos. Which leads to the question, are we getting at the root cause of constipation? Maybe there is something that is hap...

Do Yogis Need Massage Guns? Fitindex Massage Gun Review  Bonus: How to Use Massage Gun for Sciatica  If you are wondering what massage gun to buy or which massage gun is the best, I have a great massage gun for you today.  I will talk about how massage guns work, who they are good for. In this video I will talk about when to use a massage gun. I will discuss the massage gun versus a foam roller or...

Mudras In this video I am going to share with you 5 techniques for increasing the effectiveness of any mudra. Mudras are basically yoga postures for your hands that facilitate the flow of energy in the subtle body to a specific end. Sometimes they are used to enhance meditation, sometimes they are used to improve some kind of physical ailment such as back pain or menstrual cramps. Mudras can also...

Teacup Twirls In this short video I am going to show you a qigong inspired movement to open up your shoulders and increase their mobility using a yoga block. This movement is part of a longer class for ventral vagus activation that focuses on playful movements like this as an advanced technique for learning. This fun movement intentionally moves your shoulders through their full range of motion an...

Vagus Nerve In this video I am going to show you how to use a massage ball similar to Jill Miller’s courageous ball to stimulate your vagus nerve so that it is easier for you to speak your truth with a full and resonant voice. Hi I’m Melissa from Yoga with Melissa. One of the most amazing things I have learned in the past year is the power of the vagus nerve. It is part of our autonomic nervous sy...

How to Release Anger In this short video I am going to share with you a simple qigong healing sound technique to allow you to simply and easily release anger, frustration, irritation and resentment. This is a simple and easy technique that will allow you to release anger in a healthy way slowly over time. The effects of this practice are cumulative. When you practice this simple technique every da...

Clear Your Mind In this video I am going to show you a simple technique that I often use at the beginning of my yoga practice that relaxes my neck and shoulder muscles but has a welcome side effect, it clears my mind. Every time I use this technique at the beginning of my yoga practice I notice that it clears my mind quickly and easily, that my mind feels more clear and that it helps to calm and q...