Personal Introduction
to
Your Namaste Yoga Membership

Member's Benefits
Exclusive to Members Only

• At-home yoga retreat called "Embracing Self" 
• Introductory lecture
• 4 yoga classes for self-retreat
• audio instructions for yoga nidra/sleep yoga
• instructions to take you through a day of silence
• 8 walking and sitting meditation practices
• journal exercises
• 10 hours of content that will take you a 48-hour period to go through
• Yoga Immunity Boost and Hips and Hamstrings DVDs as a digital download
• Shadow Yoga for Winter Solstice
• Discussion Forum
• Ask Melissa section

Why Join?

People LOVE Melissa's Teaching Style

• "I live close to Melissa and consider her to be one of my mentors. Her and Tim have encouraged me to do things I would have never thought I could do (like being on camera on Melissa's podcasts). I am so grateful for their guidance and generousity!! I am always in awe the way Melissa just takes up the reins and moves forward in all of her endeavers. She is a wealth of knowledge and I look forward to learn more from her." Nienke
• "I love that the class isn't totally geared to the teacher's favorite poses and far beyond my ability. I love that she is a gentle soul who has captured the essence of yoga."  SisterS
• "I thoroughly enjoy the pace and thematic style of Melissa's yoga classes along with the Phoenix Rising influence. I appreciate her knowledge of anatomy and most of all her authentic expression of her own humanity." DebbieS

Yoga Has Offered Many Benefits to our Members 

• "Mental and emotional peace, flexibility, compassion, and oneness" Michael Knight
• "Physical, mental and total happiness" Viola Vazio
• "Peace, love and happiness." Ana Karina
• "Increased self awareness; physical and mental, flexibility, inner peace" Kristen Oates
• "calm, focus, flexibility" Linda Scardina
• "Yoga has helped me deal with my anger" Melissa
• "Calmness, feeling centered and relief from pain." Ivy Tulin
• "flexibility, being centered and the feeling "all is well" Amanda Beadles
• "I needed to learn how to calm down and just "be" in the moment. Bonus cured my migraines!!" Lisa M. Pype
• "For me yoga has helped me with so many things in my life. I have severe psoriatic arthritis in my knees and since starting yoga my flare ups are so much more manageable. It gives me a calm that I can go to anytime I need to. Shari Coulter
• "I love what it has done for my spine and my total body awareness" RosD
• "support and inspiration" SandyJ
• "transformative" Ivy Tulin
• "inspiration, stress- relief, emotional support or physical challenge helped me to become a more patient and happy person." Kornelia K
• "I love the stability it brings to my life" SisterS
• "That we can have a meaningful practice that creates space, softness and strength in our bodies through mindful poses connected to a specific intention." Terri
• "Although I live with rheumatoid arthritis and severe migraines I find that yoga's the one thing that I always come back to in times of need." DonnaS 

Yoga That is Accessible

• "I love the concept of yoga for "real people" and that in one way or another is accessible to everyone's body, physically, emotionally and spiritually." TerriC
• "Namaste Yoga's tag line has always been real yoga for real people. I've always looked at what is being asked of people in other classes and videos as unrealistic and as Randy says serving the teacher more than the students. Now truth is, my body doesn't want to do those crazy poses every day anyway!!! I'm definitely more on the real side than the super hero yogi." Melissa

 

 

What's Stopping You?

Online teaching can be so impersonal and cold

• "Melissa has the ability to connect with her Yogi's just as if she was in the same room." Betty P

Objection: I'm Afraid it will be too DIFFICULT

•  "I was afraid that my body wouldn't be able to do it. Which was reinforced by a completely bloodyminded Iyengar teacher who told me to sit out of about half the class."
• "My fear about doing yoga was that it would hurt a lot like most workout programs."
• "I was not sure that my body could do the poses I was seeing."
• "I was never gonna be able to do those challenging asanas"

Response

• Melissa teaches in a way that honours all levels
• She offers modifications
• Our tag line has always been real yoga for real people
• We offer yoga that is accessible to all people

Objection: I'm afriad it will be too EASY

• "I thought it wouldn't be challenging enough and too slow paced. Now I am thankful to slow down and surprised at what a good workout it is for the body!" Donna
• "I was afraid that I would become "too calm" and lose my artistic fire and become a hippie all over again!" Janis
• I was afraid it was going to be slow and boring

Response

• Melissa offers yoga that engages people at all levels of experience
• When tell me that they need more of a challenge, I challenge them to consider their own yoga, "Are you breathing? Are you focusing on what is happening in your body, mind, emotions, spirit? Is your mind wandering" Yoga is practiced at many levels and when practiced consciously is rarely easy. 

Yoga Can be lonely

• yoga can be such a solitary and isolated practice and having this community can be a place where we actually talk about our experiences. Founder, Dr. Melissa West
• "Melissa I totally agree with what you say about spiritual practice being a lonely endeavour. My other friends would think I'm totally crazy if I started to speak about chakras, asanas etc, so I don't. This site is a wonderful way of bringing like minded people together, so thank you!" SandyJ

I'm Bored of Doing the Same Thing Every Class

• "Melissa continues to show us that we can have a complete practice without necessarily doing a series of sun salutes each time." TerriC

Fear: Yoga is Evil

• "I was afraid that it was evil - the ole Southern Baptist that was in me- thank goodness that fear is gone." Michael

 Response

• While I do engage in the spiritual teachings of yoga, the yoga sutras, the Bhagvadgita, the Vedas, and other spiritual texts, we use these stories and teachings as a metaphor for our own human experience. I encourage my students to take what works for them and shelf the rest. 

Yoga is for the Beautiful People

•  "I was afraid all the beautiful people would laugh at me... now I laugh at them. Well, not really. I laugh at myself for being so silly." Kelley
• "Feeling & looking like a wanker." Lisa
• That I would look ridiculous in class to everyone else who is fit and flexible. I came to learn that this was not the case, when I actually tried it. =)

 

*Please note, we are in the process of moving this website and the membership site over to a new platform. Members who sign up before we move will be kept at this rate for life. Before we move, we will be manually e-mailing you your membership login information. You will receive your login information by e-mail within 24 hours of registration. 

Not Everybody Can Get to a Yoga Class

• too expensive
• too much travel
• too much time away from your responsibilities in the home
• "Being in such a rural community means I do not get to attend yoga classes...since I am the yoga teacher! I so love being the student now and then! I came onto Melissa's videos via Blip TV just a few months ago. I now get to have a class." GlendaB
• "Melissa's classes give me the freedom to weave yoga into my ever fluctuating schedule." Debbie

 

*Please note, we are in the process of moving this website and the membership site over to a new platform. Members who sign up before we move will be kept at this rate for life. Before we move, we will be manually e-mailing you your membership login information. You will receive your login information by e-mail within 24 hours of registration.