Live Like You Practice Docuseries + Gems
Subscribe to MelMarie off the Mat on Youtube to watch the Docuseries
About the docuseries-
Most of us began yoga and mindfulness with many misconceptions in mind such as you have to look a certain to do it, there are certain things required to do it “right”, it is only for women or certain body types, that you inherently aren't good at it, you need to be flexible, that it is a religion of some sort from the east, and more and more. I see these beliefs all the time and have once believed them myself…until I witnessed transformation within my own mind and health which ignited the passion I have today to make this modality accessible to all walks of life and bring yoga into unconventional places.
Over the past decadeMelMarie Yoga has been part of pioneering yoga and mindfulness into the US Military, higher academia, and clinical care. We want to show you, walk with you, and include you in the healing that is awaiting from within your own body. Resources we were never taught about, heal the distrust in the yoga industry and be part of a better future of integrative care and proactive wellness.
We are celebrating and inviting you into ways to Live Like You Practice in your own life now. The docuseries itself is packed with mind blowing interviews and reframing our cultural perception of yoga in the west and this work becomes a recognized modality in the health care continuum. This is just the beginning and you are welcome to join us at the table to advocate stress hygiene, accessible care and mental wellness. Episodes drop on YouTube every Monday based on themes to widen dialogue in health, education and yoga industries.
BE ADDED TO THE IN THE KNOW LIST FOR THE DOCUSERIES AND RECEIVE FREE ACCESS TO ONE YEAR ON OUR DEMAND STUDIO. WE WANT TO BLESS YOU THIS SEASON IN EVERY WAY. WHAT WE DO NOW SETS THE TONE FOR WHAT LIFE SHAPES INTO.
Ways to support the Docuseries-
- Subscribe to MelMarie off the Mat on Youtube
- Share the docuseries preview and other content and clips through social media found on @melmarieyoga
- Episodes Drop Every Monday
Episode One: Threads of Tranquility
Episode One: Threads of Tranquility sets the stage on the docuseries journey as we explore textures of yoga beyond the studio into our day to day life, clinics and beyond. We highlight the importance of fostering authentic connections back to ourselves through the framework that yogic teachings offer while widening the context of yoga’s relevance in health, higher academia and at home. Main takeaways:- Widening the context of yoga.- Yoga in clinical settings including mental health and academia. - Personal examples from the lens of different populations of how living like you practice (where yoga is not what you do but what you embody) transforms lives. - Embark on a journey of self discovery as we set the tone for captivating discussions throughout the series.
Episode Two: Yoga Unbound
Episode Two: Yoga Unbound disrupts common misconceptions in the yoga industry that keep people from leaning into proactive health through mental wellness, movement and connection with breath. This episode peaks into the evolution of yoga and mindfulness expanding in public domains such as health care and others while releasing stigmas that keep people in doubt or insecure. The episode highlights what it really means to Live Like You Practice and removes industry gatekeeping and narratives that teach otherwise. The mechanics of mindfulness are a human birth right. Stress reduction is not something we should ever gate keep, because the tools already live within. Main takeaways:- Debunking circumstantial barriers to mindfulness.- Practical exemplification of Living Like You Practice - Direct stories of improving quality of life and personal transformation by widening the context of yoga.- The importance of self agency in yoga practices and the person-centeredness that was forgotten. - Yoga in health care, lobbying and bringing to underserved populations and unconventional places. - Limit often lives in the perception we hold and the perspectives we adopt, learning to widen and release to reclaim our vitality. - A special gem and affirmation at the end.
THREE REASONS THE DOCUSERIES IS SO IMPORTANT
1. Stress hygiene and nervous system regulation is a tool that lives within the body. As a culture we are so disassociated from our bodies and feel disconnected on where to start to make us feel better. Therefore, we run to many external quick "solutions" that may either make it feel better temporarily or have consequential side effects. There is so much awaiting the pharmacy within. Every human deserves to know about and experience it.
2. There has been a lot of mistrust in the yoga industry due to the mainstream perception of yoga belonging only in studios as a fitness modality or needing to wear specific clothing to do it or even it being only for women or a certain archetype that is not relatable. We want to heal this and widen it beyond performance where your practice becomes an intimate return back to yourself.
3. Health Care. The crisis is loud, mental health is a huge issue many are struggling with. As a profession, this work is in the process of becoming a recognized co-modality that can aid patient care and open more ways for patients to participate in their own health through prevention and maintenance. Stress Reduction modalities such as mind body medicine, yoga, and mindfulness are sustainable tools with a multi-modal approach.
Episode Three: Healing Beyond Borders
Episode Three: This is that episode that awakens why "yoga does what yoga does". This week we are unpacking Yoga Therapy as it pertains to public health and the stress crisis. This is what we do- through the body we change the mind. Through the body we restore the nervous system. Through the body we reclaim our self knowing. Through the body we befriend what is awaiting within. Main takeaways:- Understanding the stress crisis and why yoga is relevant to facing health challenges of the 21st century. - How yoga is not just stretching. - Personal stories on yoga as adjunct to health challenges including healing after cancer, physical injuries, healthy aging.- Orienting ourselves towards flourishing health. - The mechanics of yoga and mindfulness to foster vitality and wellness. - How dynamic yogic interventions can be. - How to co-create with challenges in life through nervous system optimization.
Episode Four: Yoga RX
Episode Four: Discover from the perspectives of integrative health advocates and an array of providers on why they are seeing a need for education and use of mind body modalities such as yoga in Health Care. This episode unveils the need to implement yogic and mind body modalities into patient and provider care while showing practical ways this is already happening. Main takeaways:- The realization of needing more presence in patient care and efficacy around holistic health.- Defining proactive and participatory health to reduce health care costs allocation.- The power of education on yoga and mind body interventions within health care and medical schools to improve a wider lens on supporting patients while also preventing burnout in providers.- The accessibility and power of mindfulness being implemented in health care and addressing the current barriers we are overcoming as a collective.- Examples of bringing yoga and mindfulness into clinical care. - The use and application of yoga therapy in health care and the impact of a regulated nervous system in health and treatments. New Episodes drop every Monday! Next episode dives into the education happening behind the scenes within our training programs and how we are teaching trainees to deliver this work in an accessible way within studios and taking it beyond the studio.
Episode Five: Radiance Unleashed
Episode Five: Welcome to a peak into our most sacred work. Where education and personal transformation meet. This episode shares inside our training and education experiences through the eyes of our community highlighting the impact of mindfulness based education while also sharing deeper into our philosophies, framework for teaching and ways we fulfill a high standard of excellence at MelMarie Yoga.Main takeaways:- How accessible our education experience are. - How dynamic the individuals who train at MelMarie Yoga range- from medical professionals to health enthusiasts to those seeking self care and deeper meaning in life or those recovering from challenges. All walks are welcome in our school as we keep our programs accessible, relevant, and inclusive for the diverse community that joins us in training. - Why mentoring during the training experience is so powerful. - Our specialization in training business so our graduates have the tools to impact and serve their communities while creating sustainable paths for themselves. - Why we do not believe in gatekeeping and what makes us so unique among other schools. - A glimpse of the diverse paths of education we provide including accessible module/remote formats to in person experiences that support local studios. Our mission to guide you personally in creating a life you do not need to escape from and collectively elevating accessible mindfulness and yoga in public domains.
Episode Six: The Adaptive Agenda Part One
Episode Six: Discover how adaptive yoga can be. This episode explores yoga being utilized into nonprofit work, skin care, American Sign Language, bilingual communities, yoga for men, community events, Football Players at UTSA, and sound healing. Enjoy a peak into ways yoga and mindfulness can thread as a co-modality or into populations to make it accessible, adaptive and impactful for all. Main takeaways:- Widening the perspective of how yoga is applied in unique settings and focusing on more than just the poses. - Creative ways teachers are implementing yoga into their professions. - The need of mindfulness based resources at nonprofits and organizations. - Teaching for accessibility including for bilingual communities and using ASL. - Ways yoga can be applied through means of sound healing, stress reduction, breath work, creativity and lifestyle applications. - Disarming beliefs that narrow what yoga and mindfulness is and who practices. That Yoga is for every body and everybody. These self referral skills are a human birth right for regulation, self connection and vitality.
Episode Seven: Yoga is for The Mind
Episode Seven: From personal reflections and testimonies of yoga aiding mental health to clinical integration and perspectives from mental health professionals on utilizing yoga and mindfulness, yoga is for the mind. In the west, often it is the physical benefits that bring people to yoga but the mental that keeps people coming back. Learn about how yoga aids mental reframe, trauma recovery, stress reduction and cultivating more peace in your life through your inner resources. Main takeaways:- The power of self care, mindset and filling our own wellbeing to extend to others from a place of have. - Navigating the fluctuations of the mind through self connection. - A mental health clinic bringing yoga and mindfulness in house. - Getting nerdy on why yoga aids mental health, down regulating emotions and self inventory. - Ways for providers to implement intentionally and use for optimizing behavioral health. - Roles of somatics, breath, grounding, yoga and mindfulness for recovering the nervous system from trauma and why yoga aids trauma recovery. - Benefits and ways providers are using this work for themselves and sharing with their clients.
Episode Eight: The Adaptive Agenda Part Two
Episode Eight: The Adaptive Agenda continues into more accessibility, unique expressions and ways that yoga is impacting communities. From Healthy Aging through Yoga Therapy to utilizing yoga, mindfulness and meditation in lifestyle management to reverse noncommunicable diseases. Witness creative applications of yoga such as from a music producer creating experiences, community events threading poetry into yoga, blending dance and yoga for trauma recovery, corporate wellness, a massage therapist using yoga in session and Mel's beginnings with yoga. Other communities represented are bringing yoga and mindfulness to inmates, athletes, and humans through person centered approaches. Yoga is for everybody. Main takeaways:- The impact of yoga on healthy aging and lifestyle management. - The power of music to guide experiences. - A journey into yoga starting with a Yoga Tape at home inspiring a passion to become a profession. - Larger organizations using meditation, stress reduction and mindfulness for the health of employees. - Application of dance into yoga for therapeutic impact. - Integrative approach to Massage Therapy and Athletics. - Bringing Yoga to inmates and prisons. - Yoga is for everyone.
Episode Nine: Practice What You Breathe
Episode Nine: Cozy into the many ways yoga can thread into your home and family life. Learn the power of prenatal yoga, baby and me yoga, yoga for kids and why it is so beneficial for development. We deepen the conversation on empowerment, self agency and health benefits for prenatal and labor to exploring how modeling mindfulness to our children normalize self regulation, physical wellness and coping skills into their life.Main takeaways:- Benefits of Prenatal Yoga, what is prenatal yoga and the empowering impact it has on soon to be mamas and for labor. - Yoga for kids with Special Needs - Yoga for Educators and bringing it into schools.- Modeling regulation and self care for kids + a candid fun story from Mel about her daughter overcoming fear through affirmations. - Addressing childhood obesity and a physician who advocates for yoga at home with families. - A mental health professional sharing how she brings yoga to at risk youth. - Yoga for Adolescents - On and off the mat benefits for families, kids, prenatal and more sharing the power of yoga for everyone.