Melanie Dawn Yoga & Wellness

11/20/2025

Lately I’ve been seeing a popular yoga publication make a lot of posts that seem to separate yoga teachers and students. Things like “the last yoga class I took and why I didn’t come back”. I read it with an open heart but knew that I would likely feel the same way I do now. Not every class is for everyone - meaning style, teacher, studio vibe, etc. When we take our personal experiences and make them universal, you might be throwing away a perfectly good teacher, class style, studio, etc. and at the end of the day, your teacher, she’s a student too. One that became passionate enough about how yoga made them feel to put themselves out there to teach. Maybe there are some individuals that make you feel unseen, unheard or unsafe in some way but is it intentional? Could they be going through something too?

I know for myself I have put on a smile and taught when my insides were dying. I did my best but maybe it wouldn’t have been enough for someone who’s also going through it. Humans aren’t robots. We have ups and downs even if you’ve been trained out the w***o.

Embrace this. It is what makes us, us.

These are bridges for connection, not separation…or maybe it’s a bridge to find something that better fits.

Regardless, yoga happens inside. The shapes appear on the outside, but all the work is happening within ❤️

11/19/2025

The thing that holds you back is telling yourself no.

Maybe you don’t even recognize that you do that, you’ve done it so many times.

When you see someone you wish you could be like - you can. You’re their same choices and decisions away.

Would you have to get honest with yourself? Yep. And it will be amazing

I know it’s scary. Do something small about it if you’re not going to do something big.

The ending that you want to feel is happening right now. Right where you are.

Who do you need to be, what do you need to do

(Forget about what peoooe will say or think. People who think like that will do it regardless. Give them something to say 😉)

being amazing 📷

11/18/2025

11/18/2025

Did you know that practicing breathwork techniques leads to greater internal resilience?

In place of allowing autonomic systems to react to external or internal stimuli, running their usual course (aka fight/flight/freeze responses) you create presence when needed.

Through yoga and breathwork, you have trained your body enough to insert conscious willl and voluntarily control your breath signaling to other systems that you are safe, giving you time to CHOOSE your response over being high jacked into a past pattern.

If you find you repeat cycles that you would like to change, you first need to know what disrupting patterns looks and feels like. Patterns become obvious the more you practice yoga nidra, meditation, yoga and brearhwork.

11/17/2025

Yoga is not just for your body. Mobility is just for your body. Yoga encompasses the subtle layers of self and systems that are equivalent to a life guide. Many people find yoga when they feel lost because it is a guide back to yourself and we innately know it. You build internal strength when practicing yoga over doing mobility - your presence is wholly centred in the now. No past, no future, just the present. All that loud inner talking is a voice you become very familiar with when sitting in the throes of discomfort voluntarily.

We can do hard things. Yoga shows us this in every practice. Hard is different for everyone.

If you have been thinking about beginning a yoga practice, the time is always now.

11/17/2025

Did you know that backbends don’t just strengthen the muscles around the spine, they open the energetic center of the heart. These postures can lead to a shortened breath when moving into them too quickly or too deeply.

In a forward focused world, your shoulders begin to curl towards your heart, symbolically closing the heart energy center making backbends your medicine.

Work on strengthening your back body and you’ll also begin to open to the lower minds where many of your programs are stored safely out of your sight.

Yoga is more than mobility. It works with your body’s energy centers consciously. You may not hear your teacher cueing each posture energetically but it’s happening.

11/15/2025

Pigeon pose is one of those love em or hate em poses. There are so many variations to explore and always at the end reflecting on why it fits your body so well when you find the Goldilocks spot. A lot is revealed when we go beyond the pose

Sometimes you want—or need—a different stretch than you usually practice. These variations of Pigeon Pose in yoga are exactly that.

11/11/2025

Your energy is directly impacted by your body’s health. It’s a fine tuned instrument or a stagnant pond.

Your resistance to clean and hone your body is a disconnection from your heart. You’ve become disembodied.

Disconnected from your true nature in pursuit of the mind. You are neither your body or your mind. You are all of it and you are that which is aware of it.

Dare I say - you are God.

~I searched for God and found only myself. I searched for myself and found only God~Rumi

11/06/2025

What has been the most memorable or profound spiritual/consciousness related book you’ve read?

11/05/2025

Today in yoga we practiced the duality of freedom and discipline. How one posture can feel more open and free while another bound and constructed. The purpose we do this for is to embrace duality. Two truths can exist.

We learn to make space across our hearts and build strength within the back body while simultaneously remaining open hearted.

That’s why yoga is hard.

You confront yourself and your way of being. It’s only you.

11/05/2025

Animals feel safest when you feel what you feel.

They are so keen to let you know that your nervous system is firing and sometimes that’s a trigger for us. We make it about them. But is it really?

Dogs behave differently with different people. Nervous systems link up and healing can happen quickly. We see it in them.

We see it in ourselves

Why don’t we do that. Healthy grounded nervous systems link up with us wiry ones. Or maybe we’re all wiry but in different ways 🤔

11/04/2025

The freedom you feel is completely dependent upon the discipline you have