Even now, when skin is not alone, it remembers being alone, and thanks to something larger,
that there are travelers, that people go places larger than themselves.
Stay with me, Shihab Nye.
Hello and welcome to episode number 344 of Yoga with Melissa.
Thank you so much for joining us as we journey into our innermost home today.
Thank you for welcoming me into your home.
Today I am at the top of Moss Rock, which is pretty close to our home, and it's a beautiful
place where I can see pretty much all of Victoria, all of our surrounding area, so beautiful
location today.
And I'm going to have you start by lying on your back and placing your hands on your heart
center.
So you can go ahead and do that now, lie down on your back and place your hands on your
heart center.
I want to thank Squeeze Yoga Clothing for my clothes.
Today I'm wearing one of the new hoodies with the thumb holes, and it's bamboo, and
this one has the tree of life on it.
It's black with the purple tree of life on it, and I'm also wearing purple long leggings
with the old mani padme om around the right ankle.
And also thanks to Dusky Leaf for my props today.
I'm not sure what props you're going to need, so I would have everything close by.
I brought my strap and my blocks today.
So that's pretty much all I'm going to be able to use.
We'll start by coming together with our peace mantra.
So that mantra means protect us together, student and teacher, may our studies nourish
us together, may we work together for the good of the union of all, may our learning
be luminous and purposeful, may we live in harmony, peace, peace, peace, be unto all.
So I have a testimonial for you today from Sonia via email, and she says, Hi Melissa
Tim and Trinity.
This was an email that she sent me in response to sending a donation.
She said, I decided to set up a monthly contribution to Yoga with Melissa after joining in online
for around 18 months because I felt a need to show some appreciation for your contribution
to my life.
Last year I underwent spinal surgery for a lumbar decompression, she said, I did not
make this decision lightly, however, have experienced some success and relief post-surgery.
The one thing that gave me relief prior to surgery was Yoga with Melissa beginner classes.
I would choose to do the ones that gave me the most relief and do these every day after
work.
Since then I have continued to do my weekly Yoga classes almost every week and continue
to gain strength, confidence and peace.
After a suitable recovery period, I contacted a local yoga instructor and explained my situation
and need for a considerate skilled yogi who could guide me through my poses with consideration
for my physical capabilities.
I did not receive a reply or invitation to their class once they knew my history.
So I explained your classes to my physiotherapist who supported my participation in your online
classes as long as I worked within the limitations of my own body.
So I really appreciate that she was working in conjunction with her physiotherapist because
then she would know, as she said, what she could do and what she couldn't do.
Your classes make allowance for everyone to do what is right for their body, so thank
you.
So you signed up for your August beginner challenge.
So as of today that we're, as we're filming, we're on day 11 of the 31 day challenge.
So congratulations to everybody who is working so diligently on the challenge.
It's great to see all your photos and see you all working away at this.
I know several of you are doing it and it's amazing to see so many people involved this
year, so many more than last year.
So you can post your photos on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag beginner yoga
with Melissa.
And you can start anytime.
So just send us an email and we can, we'll put this in the show notes this week how you
can get involved.
So she says she just signed up for the beginner class challenge in August and she shared it
with her friends who promised to take up the challenge.
I hope this challenge will help build my strength and it definitely will build your
strength doing yoga every day, but also there are specific classes for spring in the challenge
and get me back into a regular yoga routine.
I love the modifications you demonstrate and enjoy the natural delivery of the classes.
Loving the new drone footage and enjoy the scenery locations of each class.
I live in a small town in South Australia and your land states continue to engage me
as I am very much a creature of the earth.
Look forward to each week's class and try to make sure that there is time on Sundays
to do the weekly class.
Oh, that's true because the class would come out pretty much on, because we put it out
at Friday at 9am so then it would be Saturday for her.
So that would be a good time for her to do it Sunday.
If I could drag myself out of the garden, she says, thank you again, Melissa, your dedication
and commitment to my well-being is very much appreciated.
So thank you, Sonya, for your testimonial and thank you to all of you who sent, take
time to leave me semi-emails or leave a speakpike testimonial on my website or on Facebook
or Instagram, iTunes, YouTube, and of course our most in-depth discussions always occur
in our membership community.
Our poem for today is Two Countries by Naomi Sheehub Nye.
Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness,
feather lost from the tail of a bird, swirling onto a step, swept away by someone who never
saw it was a feather.
Skin ate, walked, slept by itself, knew how to raise a see you later hand, but skin felt
it was never seen, never known as a land on the map, nose like a city, hip like a city,
gleaming dome of the mosque, and a hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.
Skin had hope that's what skin does, heals over a scarred place, makes a road.
Love means you breathe in two countries, and skin remembers silk, spiny grass, deep in
the pocket that is skin's secret own.
Even now when skin is not alone, it remembers being alone and thinks something larger that
there are travelers, that people go places larger than themselves.
So as you rest back with your hands on your heart center, we're going to do just a silent
mantra to yourself, the soham mantra, it's also known as the swan mantra.
Because the soham mantra is the I am mantra, it's the mantra of creation, and that's the
mantra for Brahma, and the vehicle of Brahma was a swan.
So her name Hamsa, more accurately rendered as the wild goose, conceals a profound teaching
in which the powerful mantra soham, which translates as I am, the yogic mantra soham,
is not only a reflection of the sound of the breath, but also carries the contemplative
meaning I am that soham.
So as you breathe in, you're going to say so, and as you breathe out, you say silent
till you see yourself hum, and it also refers to all of creation, the one breathing us
all.
As you breathe in, you say silently so to yourself, as you breathe out, you say silently hum
to yourself.
So it's a way to send to yourself, connect to all that is, connect to that which is
breathing you, connect to all of creation.
Thank you.
You
And then stay lying on your back and this time you're going to
Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor
And we're just going to release your
shoulders a little bit
So you'll just hold on to your shoulders and with your knees bend your feet on the floor
Just lift your shoulders up and then relax them down. You're just going to lower your elbows from side to side breathe in in the center
Breathe out and lower your elbows to the other side
Breathe out and lower your elbows to the other side
And then circle your elbows
And circle them the other way
Keep breathing
Lower your hands down the knees bend in your feet flat on the floor take one of your blocks and put it between your knees
For good alignment between your hips knees and your ankles and then press into your feet and lift your hips off the ground for bridge pose
So that you have your building strength in your legs
But also I was thinking about the lines in the poem skin eight walked slept by itself
You know how to raise a sea later hand, but skin felt it was never seen
Never known as a land on the map nose like a city hip like a city
Gleaming dome of the mosque and a hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope
Slowly lower down and you can take your knees and hug them into your chest if you have any knee issues hold on behind your legs
And then we're going to do this again, but if you can stay with the same version or you can add more of a strength challenge
We're going to do one leg bridge pose so you can stay with two legs or if you want to challenge your strength you can extend your left leg
And then lower it down and then we'll do that on the other side as well so extend your right leg
And then you can slowly lower down and hug your knees into your chest
And again hold on behind your knees if you have any knee issues stretch out your low back after that
Okay we're going to be coming over and doing pigeon pose so if pigeon pose bothers your knees then I'm going to show you a modification for it
You can do eye of the needle pose instead here you would just cross your ankle over your thigh and draw your leg in like this instead this can be a lot less pressure on your knees
So this is a great alternative to pigeon pose you could do this instead
So if you're going to join us for pigeon you can come on over onto all fours
And start on all fours spread your fingers nice and wide you're going to tuck your toes under come up into downward facing dog and you're going to take your right leg up and then bend your right leg through
Reach your left leg back and long this is the most uneven surface I think I've been on in a long time I'm trying not to mention it but it is rather alarmingly uneven
Which is actually good for your body to adapt to uneven surfaces
Okay so you're going to fold forward and stretch out your hips here
And then we're going to step back into downward facing dog so tuck your back toes under
So it's really good actually for your joints to work in uneven surfaces that you're not always doing things the same way
So this is why I see my left leg is down my right leg is up so I get to experience things in my body with different alignments and that's actually really good for me
So always doing things on smooth even surfaces is it just actually makes your body more prone to injury because your body doesn't get to adapt so this is actually really good
So take your left leg up and your left knee forward and then your right leg back and long and then you're going to fold forward again and we're releasing your left hip this time
Skin remembers how the years grow when the skin is not touched a grey tunnel of singleness feather lost from the tail of a bird
Swilling onto a step swept away by someone who never saw it was a feather
So I tried to choose as many bird poses as I could and this is pigeon pose so many of the lines in the poem speak about birds
...
Okay, and then from here we're going to come up and sit for alternate nostril breathing.
So you can sit on a folded cushion or a chair.
I'm going to sit on this block.
Okay, for alternate nostril breathing, you'll take your left hand, bring your thumb and
index finger together, extend through your three fingers and place that palm up on your
lap.
And then with your right hand, extend your first two fingers, place that in the center
of your forehead.
And depending on what time of day it is, if it's the nighttime for you, you're going
to start breathing in through your left nostril.
If it's the daytime for you, then you're going to start breathing in through your right nostril
because it will be less calming for you, more energizing.
So I'm going to teach this today as though it's the daytime.
I always teach it starting with the left nostril, but today, since it's morning for me, and
I never usually teach it this way, I'm going to teach it as though we want it to be a little
more energizing starting through the sun channel.
Okay, so we're going to breathe in, close the left nostril with your ring finger, breathe
in through your right nostril.
And close your right nostril with your thumb and breathe out through your left nostril.
Breathe in through your left nostril.
Close left, breathe out right.
Breathe in right.
Close right, breathe out left.
Breathe in left.
Close left, breathe out right.
Breathe in right.
Close right, breathe out left.
Breathe in left.
Close left, breathe out right.
Continue with that in your own breath rhythm, and I'm going to read to you the lines of
the poem that I felt this related to.
But skin felt it was never seen, never known as a land on the map, nose like a city, hip
like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque, and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.
Of means you breathe in two countries.
And the next time you breathe out through your right nostril, lower your hand down and
feel the effects of the practice for you.
Notice how you feel after that.
And then turn your left palm out at the level of your heart and your right palm in, hook
your fingers for the Ganesh Mudra.
Okay, actually you're going to scratch that.
Right now I am planning so many classes and thinking about so many classes because we're
planning a trip to the Rockies.
This is actually for Yoga with Melissa number 346 that's coming up in two weeks that we're
going to be filming in advance in a couple of days.
So I actually thought that this was going to be your mood today.
So you're just going to sit, actually put your hands back on your heart center like
we did at the beginning with the Soham Mudra.
We'll do that right now.
And I will read you the two countries poem again to start the teachings for today.
Two countries by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness,
feather lost from the tail of a bird, swirling onto a step, swept away by someone who never
saw it was a feather.
Skin ate, walked, slept by itself, knew how to raise a sea later hand, but skin felt it
was never seen, never known as a land on the map, nose like a city, hip like a city, gleaming
dome of the mosque and a hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.
Skin had hope, that's what skin does, heals over the scarred place, makes a road.
Love means you breathe in two countries.
And skin remembers silk, spiny grass, deep in the pocket that skin's secret own.
Even now when skin is not alone, it remembers being alone and thinks something larger, that
there are travelers, that people go places larger than themselves.
This poem reminds me of everything I learned during my training as a phoenix rising yoga
therapist, teacher and group facilitator, that our bodies are incredible sources of wisdom.
Since our bodies have been present with us every moment of our lives, they hold all memories
of our lived experience, good, bad and indifferent.
Just like the poem says, your body experiences your reality, feels what may never be seen,
knows the unknown and untold parts of your story.
Your body is intelligent and aware of every experience that happened in your life.
Through the practice of yoga you come to experience your body in a deep and profound way.
You no longer separate your mind from your body, you become curious about the felt sensations
of your physical experience and how they connect your emotions, thoughts and energy.
Instead of looking to external sources for answers, you begin to rely more and more on
your own lived experience as your own truth.
My teacher Alyssa Cobb says, awareness happens through your body.
So reflect on these teachings and how they relate to your own life and begin to form
an intention for what you would like to receive from the rest of this yoga class today, your
yoga class today.
What would you like to create, sustain or release from your life and how can your yoga practice
help you to do that today?
Okay, so once you've formed your intention, you're going to come out of your seated position,
take your hands off your heart center and come into downward facing dog.
And then from downward facing dog, you're going to look forward at the space between
your hands, walk your feet into your hands and come up to standing.
And from standing, we're just going to do a little side bending for your spine.
Take your hands overhead and inhale center and exhale side bend.
And then from standing, we're just going to do a little side bending for your spine.
Okay, then lower your arms down and you're going to take your feet wide on your mat,
turn your toes out.
We're going to do those wild geese arms where you're going to inhale up and then exhale cross
your arms as you sink down.
So inhale up, exhale cross your arms as you sink down.
Inhale up, cross your arms as you sink down.
So skin remembers how little years grow when skin is not touched.
The gray tunnel of singleness, feather lost from the tail of a bird swirling onto a step
swept away by someone who never saw it was a feather.
And then I'm going to get you to step in and we're going to do garudasana, eagles pose.
So I'm going to give you some modifications for eagles pose.
The first modification would be to stand with your feet together, your legs together, your
elbows together and your hands together and sit down in a squat pose here for eagles pose
like this.
And you would do the same thing on both sides for that one.
Okay, that's a nice modification, still working balance because you're bringing your feet
together.
If you wanted to join us for the balancing versions, you're going to stand on your right
leg and you're going to cross your left leg over, place your toes on the ground would
be the first option.
Foot on the outside of your right leg would be the second option or you can hook your
foot all the way around would be the final option.
Then you're going to bring your right arm up, hook your left arm underneath it, bring
your right elbow tight into your body is the easiest for flexibility.
And then hook your, okay, lots of options.
First hands together, back to the hands together or hook your hands.
So whatever works best for you in your body, okay, and focus on something that's not moving.
The Garudas in the ego pose, great pose for balance and all the joints of your body, ankles,
knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists.
I'm going to tell you, that's really hard to do up here because if you could see what
I could see behind me, that like there's so much to see and I can see over the whole
horizon, I can see over the whole city, you can see mountains, I can see houses, I can
see trees, so it's like hard to really focus on one point because my view is so expansive
up here.
So maybe that's what it's really like to do ego pose, you should try and do ego pose
on the top of a mountain sometime and see what it's like when you have such a big perspective,
try balancing an ego pose that way sometime.
Okay, let's try this on the other side.
Here, start building from the base again, this is how you build poses, start with your
feet together, elbows together and squat, squat nice and low, so that's your first option.
Your second option is to stand on your left foot this time, cross your right foot over,
place your toe on the ground, or you can pick it up and put it on the outside of your thigh,
or you can hook your foot, then you're going to bring your left arm up, hook your right
arm around, back of the palms can come together, or you can hook your hands.
So remember you're working all the joints of your body here, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders,
elbows, wrists, and you're working on balance here.
And then release, so that side was much easier for me because I looked at the ground, but
also I think this leg is much stronger.
So notice if you notice what side was stronger for you, and just notice those differences
in your body.
Okay, so I'm wimping out now, I had put that I was going to do peacock feather pose, and
I'm really not willing to do that up here.
First of all, there's nowhere for me to balance against, there's not a tree or anything.
Peck feather pose is where you balance on your forearms and you kick your legs up in
the air.
Yeah, so there's nowhere for me to balance on, and also I don't want to crack my head
open on the rock.
And so I'm going to show you a modified version of that pose that will build up our body strength.
I chose it because there's all these versions of the feather in this poem, right?
But let's do dolphin pose instead.
So this is the build up to that pose.
So you're going to come down onto your forearms with your elbows together, okay?
So your wrist should be equal distance from your elbows, and then you're going to tuck
your toes under and come up onto your forearms, and we'll just hold here.
Okay, and then you can release that down.
Oh my gosh, those are so much easier.
I've been practicing lots of upper body strength and hanging and stuff.
I just have to say my upper body strength is getting so much stronger.
Okay, then we're going to do a bridge pose.
So lying your back again.
We're going to do bridge pose again, because skin had hope that when skin heals over the
scarred place, it makes a road.
And I was thinking about how bridges create those, you know, they go over a place to...
Bridges create bridges, you know, like scars do.
Okay, so what you're going to do is lying your back, knees bent, feet on your flat on
the floor.
We're going to do bridge pose again.
You're building lower body strength.
Repetition creates strength here.
So press into your feet, lift up.
And then lower down, you can hug your knees into your chest.
And then you can either stay with both feet on the floor or press into your feet again
and lift one leg up.
And then switch.
And then lower down, hug your knees into your chest again, okay, then hug your knees into
your chest.
And then take your arms out to the side in a soft T. Take your right leg long and your
left leg bent.
Press into your right hip and cross your left leg over so you're in a reclined twist.
And then roll back onto your back, press into your left foot and tuck your hip, extend your
left leg out, bend your right knee.
Press into your right foot.
And then you're going to roll all the way to that side and make your way up to seated.
For a forward fold to finish, you're just going to bend your right knee in and extend
your left leg out.
You may want to place a blanket underneath your hips to elevate them a bit to help you
to fold forward.
Or if you're on a descending slope like me, you won't need to do that.
Fold forward.
I really like this hole here at the bottom of my, that was fun to play with.
It was right where my left leg was for downward facing dog.
Good for my vestibular system, good for proprioception.
And then switch.
So extend your right leg out, bend your left knee.
Lift up nice and tall and you're going to fold forward over your right leg.
And then you're going to fold your left leg out, bend your left leg out, bend your
left leg out.
Then you're going to sit up and you're going to rest back on your back.
You're going to stay here and I'm going to sit up and we do the poem one last time.
Two countries by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Skin remembers how long the years grow when skin is not touched, a gray tunnel of singleness,
feather lost from the tail of a bird swirling onto a step, swept away by someone who never
saw it was a feather.
Skin ate, walked, slept by itself, knew how to raise a see you later hand.
But skin felt it was never seen, never known as a land on the map, nose like a city, hip
like a city, gleaming dome of the mosque and the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.
Skin had hope, that's what skin does, heals over the scarred place, makes a road.
Skin means you breathe in two countries and skin remembers silk, spiny grass, deep in
the pocket that it is skin's secret own.
Even now when skin is not alone, it remembers being alone and thanks to something larger
that there are travelers that people go places larger than themselves.
So reflect back on your experience of your yoga practice, the poem and this class and
see what stands out to you, what's one small thing that you're going to take with you off
your mat and into your life.
And then gradually allow your breath to deepen, wiggle your fingers and your toes, bend your
knees, roll to your right side and slowly make your way up to seated.
We'll finish our class today with the Lokasamastasukinobhavantu mantra, gathering the fruits of your
practice first into yourself and then offering them out into the world.
May all beings be happy and free and may the thoughts, words and actions of my own life
contribute in some way to the happiness and freedom for all.
So thank you so much for joining me for episode 344 of Yoga with Melissa.
If you liked today's show, please give it a thumbs up.
If you know somebody who would enjoy it, feel free to share it with them.
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I put out a blog post every Monday to show you the behind the scenes and also stuff what
I do off my mat every, if you're curious about how a yogi lives off her mat, then that comes
out every Monday and every Wednesday I answer your questions, so feel free to send me your
questions and I will answer them.
So I share with you some of my friends from around the island, I interview them and stuff
like that as well.
Some other interesting things, that's on my Live Your Yoga channel and you can, that's
on one of these things right here, here.
Thank you for your donations, Donna, Sean, Viola, Vicky and Sakari.
Your continued support allows us to offer this free show every Friday.
As I say, this show is given freely but it costs us to produce it and distribute it,
so thank you so much for your support for that, it really helps us out to continue to
do this.
Today's question to answer in the comment is, what is your body telling you this week?
So thank you for answering that question and if you would like an infographic of my top
three benefits of engaging in poetry, then go to MelissaWest.com slash 344 and scroll
down to the opt-in box and type in your email address and then we'll send you an infographic
of my top three benefits of engaging with poetry.
And if you would like more support and bring awareness to your body, then I highly recommend
our Introduction to Meditation series in our membership community.
This is a five-day series that will introduce you to meditation by preparing you for sitting,
how to sit, how to be in your body, being with your breath and also a candle-gazing
meditation.
So there's a link to that in the show notes for members and also you can click right here
to become a member as well.
I'm sending you much love from beautiful British Columbia, may your joy be as deep as
our Pacific Ocean, may you be as strong as our mountains and may you be as rooted as
the trees in our forest.
Om Shanti Namaste.
Melissa would love to hear your questions and thoughts.
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