The Healing Power of Yoga and Self Care with Melissa Aguirre

Melissa: [00:00:00] I would have so many different bodies, I mean, different mental health challenges, scenarios. So it was, it’s a really about how do you be inclusive, but also giving people the traits and tools that can elevate their healing. In my opinion, that’s what the power of invitation is. And the other power of it is like, when somebody is on the mat and you’re giving them options, they’re having to lean into a choice, which is huge for building self agency, and it’s really a big piece of trauma recovery.

Hope: Do you want to wake up feeling like you’re stepping into who you’re meant to be? Into the best possible version of you? What if I told you that the key to your best life, health, and happiness are all around you? You just have to find what works for you. I’m Hope Pedraza, and I believe that there isn’t just one way to live a healthy and meaningful life, and that all you need is a little inspiration to make changes that last from the inside out.

Each week, I’ll be sharing tangible tips and inspirational interviews to help you on your journey. These are the [00:01:00] steps to take to improve your life and live with purpose. This is Hopeful and Wholesome. Hey y’all, welcome to Hopeful and Wholesome. Thanks so much for listening today, I’ve got Melissa Aguirre on today.

Melissa is the self care queen. She works as a yoga studio owner, a holistic health coach, and stress management specialist. And she’s a yoga teacher training specializing in adaptive yoga. She is providing the most comprehensive and intuitive guidance for all those looking to live a more centered and self care driven life.

In our interview today, we talk a lot about exactly what adaptive yoga therapy is. And how melissa’s using this for her followers and for the u. s military Which is super interesting what she’s done for the military here in the united states We talk a lot about taking the woo woo out of yoga And then what it can really do for your body and your brain a lot of misconceptions that she kind of clears up for us She is so completely inspiring and has done so much in her young life She’s not even 30 years old and she’s just really making a [00:02:00] difference I know she will inspire you to take a deeper look at what you’re doing to take care of yourself Y’all really love enjoy this episode Okay, y’all, so let’s get going.

I’m excited to bring on Melissa today from Mel Marie Yoga. And I’m really excited for this conversation because we’re talking about all things self care and about the healing power of yoga and self care, which is really something we all need a little bit more of right now, right? So thanks for joining me today, Melissa.

Melissa: Yeah, thank you. It’s an honor to be here and super relevant. 

Hope: Yeah, totally. So for everybody listening, this will come out. I’m hoping, praying that this comes out after all of this madness has settled down, but we’re in the middle of. The COVID 19 pandemic. And so we, I’m sure have lots of talk about all things related to that, but we’ll start off here just talking kind of about a self care in general.

So it’s kind of a trendy kind of a buzzword right now. People are kind of looking into more self care options. So can you talk a little bit about your approach to self care and kind [00:03:00] of what you do with your business and your yoga studio? 

Melissa: Yeah, of course. So self care really met me several years ago And it was a process of really understanding how to define it because as you just said it’s really trendy, you know Originally, it was like, okay I’m gonna go get my facials my massage or say yes to my daily chai latte or whatever it was But it hit me when I read this article and it said it was talking about creating a life That you don’t need to escape from And the concept of creating a life you don’t need to escape from, it made me think of the really tangible, like, nitty gritty, boring stuff, such as, like, paying your bills on time, or, you know, eating things that make you feel good, drinking your water, and those really tangible pieces that make life to life softer and more breathable, and even just, like, the difference I feel when I’m practicing yoga regularly or I’m not, Or when I’m meditating, regularly or not, or even just surrounding myself with people who make me feel [00:04:00] good.

So being able to really ground self care yoga has been such a vehicle of that and I really wanted to pair it In my business that self care is the foundation. It’s really the fertile garden of which my business thrives in so With the yoga and self care approach and that’s where like adaptive is really born from it’s giving permission It’s empowering self agency, and it’s leaning into what feels yummy.

So I am definitely the type of yoga teacher that it’s all about feeling good in your body and befriending your body. Not so much about performance, but about experience. So that’s kind of my, my vibe with self care. 

Hope: I love that. You have a lot of different avenues that you bring self care to people. So, I guess, let’s look at that and kind of the different avenues that you see as important and how you use those to kind of help people with their mind body wellness.

Melissa: Yeah, I guess, like, so when I first got certified in yoga, this was back in 2011, one of the first gigs [00:05:00] that I got, which was such an honor, it was working with the Center for Disordered Eating and helping, uh, younger girls, you know, it was just, it was really not like anything specialized, so to speak, it was just yoga for eating disorder recovery.

And as I was doing that work, it really hit home for myself because like most women, the journey of feeling comfortable in your own skin is quite the journey. And it, it wasn’t until I started to practice kindness in the yoga practice, even just like some self massage techniques, giving permission that if it doesn’t feel good or if it’s too much, or I’m, I’m pushing myself that I can come to child’s pose.

Or, you know, sometimes it’s like, don’t cheat yourself on building resilience right now, like lean into it. So starting to really use my practice to grow me and to feel good and safe in my body, that’s a huge piece of where that, that really started an avenue of using yoga. As a means of self care and then of course with all the research that’s [00:06:00] coming out It really advocates for the changes that are happening in our body on a cellular level Specifically changing thought forms and disrupting those negative feedback loops So if I get into you know a cycle of whether and this was this has been the process over the past 10 years really of how yoga has Changed me is because I would learn on the mat like I would be somaticizing my intentions.

So maybe it’s Compassion, peace, patience. I don’t know self love like these sweet words, but being able to embody it That really started to I started to notice that I wasn’t so picky on myself or so hard or i’ll never forget I think it was in 2013 or 2014 I hadn’t someone somebody I was talking about like looking at how much they weighed or something like that And I realized like not only have I not looked at a scale in like months and months But I don’t even feel like Self conscious like it was this realization of when did that happen right and that’s the power of like this Practices it gets you [00:07:00] out of your head and really starting to live and it didn’t happen like overnight It just started happening naturally. So 

Hope: I love that. So you specialize in adaptive yoga therapeutics, so how What is that? 

Melissa: Okay, so the fun truth about how that name came out was it was during the time that yoga alliance and now they’re back to doing this For yoga, Alliance yoga didn’t allow us to use the word therapeutics or therapy. I got certified as a yoga therapist in my 200 hour training again 10 years ago.

Was very different in yoga than it’s today. And when I got grandfathered in, I was actually the youngest yoga therapist in the world. That’s awesome. Yeah. I did that for a year and a half for two years. And I used to actually be very subconscious at my age. I think that was probably the most challenging because you guys got to remember, I got certified at age 19.

I do my life very backwards. I got, I was already married. I mean, uh, I 

Hope: that’s crazy. 

Melissa: Yeah. Things I really leaned [00:08:00] into responsibilities pretty young. So. When I was dealing with the yoga line stuff with my programs when I was first launching my teacher trainings I’m like, okay, these are therapeutic like what else can I call it?

And the word I was debating between functional and adaptive but adaptive just really resonated with me And so that’s when I named my programs adaptive flow and from there was adaptive therapeutics was the advance or that’s what I wanted to coin it To recognize that the whole purpose of it is that we are adapting to whoever’s in front of us, whether it’s a specific population, I know we’ll talk about my work with the military.

So that was a lot of my background is adapting to a context, whether there’s amputees or people who are just really closed off to it or new to it. So having been able to be adaptive in your sequencing and designing intelligent sequences that elevate, edify and support people wherever they are. 

Hope: So is that how I guess I guess that was my probably a [00:09:00] better way to ask the question was how is it different from just like Quote yoga.

So is it more of kind of? Modifying and adapting the sessions. Is it just like a yoga flow? Like how does the class how is it structured? Yeah, so it’s not 

Melissa: necessarily like that. It’s there’s a specific structure, but there’s traits that adaptive yoga will include that other Styles may not necessarily include so a lot of invitational languaging It’s a lot of invitational to find like so the teacher will give different options Always giving starting with the blocks and usually as a teacher we teach to a I don’t like saying lower, but more accessible level.

Sure. So, like, we’re demonstrating with the props, but we’re inviting you if you want to go deeper or if you want to come out. It’s also very paced. So, and if things are going kind of more fast, and I’m snapping my fingers because I’m Vinyasa. Right, it’s going very fast and we are inviting people to go at their own pace.[00:10:00] 

Because also when people are developing their own pace, there’s a lot of brain mapping that’s happening that creates awesome benefits. So Imitational, paced practices, modified, and also the languaging is different depending on the group. So what I say when I’m training my students, I’m reminding them to stay true to their soul, signature style, stay true to your voice, but like so, My classes, if you come to a, like, if I’m doing a collaboration with Lululemon, it’s a Maumarie vibe class.

It’s going to be very flowery because that’s my vibe. It’s very poetic, flowery, yummy. But what makes it, what will be adaptive is if I’m training, you know, one of the units on Fort Sam, or if I’m working with corporate wellness or depending and depending, I might not be as flowery. The most important piece is, am I clear?

Can my students understand where I’m taking them and what we’re doing? So again, it’s that concept that we’re able to [00:11:00] intelligently design sequences that really meet the needs of people and being, you know, socially mindful, like, uh, what is that word? Like culturally mindful, I guess. So it’s that cultural sensitivity.

Hope: Yeah, for sure. And so, and you teach this, right? You have your own teacher training. So this is like, you have created this adaptive, um, Yoga therapeutic like model 

Melissa: and I did work on the trademark Perspective of it to really coin it but you can’t you can’t really mark adaptive yoga. Yeah Too broad so crazy Yeah.

But, otherwise, like, because I really was working for some time to really standardize and create, I think, consistent that if, you know, wherever it is in the country being utilized, it can be, like, there’s these specific traits about it that people, especially beginners, elderly, maybe even people who are just uncomfortable with traditional yoga, they can expect.

You know, trying to create that. But you know, I think [00:12:00] that it really, the reality is, is that this is a style or an approach that I think several people already are approaching. I don’t think that it was that I came up with something genius necessarily, but it was that I was really tuning into the needs and I think that there’s so many different styles and so many denominations of yoga and they’re all very important because they all have specific things that they’re catering to, right?

Like, we know that hot yoga is profoundly impactful for depression. You know, it’s also really great for routine and structure. So people who are in addiction recovery are gonna thrive in hot yoga or ashtanga style. 

It’s very structured. 

Right? So each of the different styles and we can go on. I think it’s important that we’re able to define traditional styles and recognize That they have specific healing agencies about, or agents about them.

And that, really what Adaptive does is it, it really brings the, what is the functional purpose of what we’re doing, whether it’s [00:13:00] mental or structurally in the body. We’re designing things and doing things with a lot of purpose. So, if it is somaticizing an intention, like feeling grounded, or are we helping you recover your pelvic floor, or addressing bipolar disorder, right?

Whatever it is. It’s really designed to be a supportive modality. 

Hope: So is that kind of your goal, your purpose behind creating that? Is it just that it’s more functional and more accessible for people? 

Melissa: Exactly. Yeah, because even in groups, like, you know, I reflect back. There was a time I had the privilege to contract with the Wounded Warrior Project and I was leading their women retreats on the East Coast and doing a lot of work with them.

But in a group, I would have so many different bodies, I mean different mental health challenges, scenarios. So it was, it’s really about how do you be inclusive, but also giving people the traits and tools that can elevate their healing. And that’s what, in my opinion, that’s what the power of invitation [00:14:00] is.

Right like it gives and the other power of it is like when somebody is on the mat and you’re giving them options They’re having to lean into a choice, which is huge for building self agency And it’s really a big piece of trauma recovery, right? 

Hope: So totally yeah, and I think I’ve that fascinates me because I think a lot of times People don’t see yoga like that, right?

They don’t see like the deeper Like I guess meaning isn’t the right word, but I feel like they think oh, yeah, i’m gonna stretch it out I’m gonna, you know quiet my mind maybe do a little meditation, but it’s that like those deeper Intentionalities are fascinating to me. Like I think that’s It’s super cool.

Melissa: Well, and it’s been moving our medical field into a place to really lean into integrative strategies for healing. So, you know, this is where mind body medicine is really born from. I mean, it’s, what’s fascinating to me is, The amount of marketing and advertising out there. I mean, even yogurt, I think even [00:15:00] McDonald’s has used yoga to advertise.

You know what I mean? Being so saturated into our community, but also our healthcare system is really starting to adopt these methods because I mean, when you, it might not be yoga, but. Well, what are we doing in yoga? We’re breathing. So that’s down regulating your nervous system. That’s also creating new pathways of resilience in the body.

You’re stretching. So you have the somatic aspects that we’re addressing the body physically, which is huge other than creating new pathways of in your nervous system, building strength. I mean, you know all about the structure, strong stuff, and then you have the mindfulness piece, which is going to disrupt negative feedback loops.

It addresses stress and inflammation. In fact, through the breathing and visualization stuff, they’ve been able to detect that inflammatory markers get decreased, which helps prevent and reverse some serious illnesses. So, it’s so cool, and it’s starting to really be acknowledged in this avenue, so. 

Hope: [00:16:00] Yeah, yeah.

And you, you have worked a lot of, like, the mental health side of this with the military. Yeah. Right? 

Melissa: Yes. 

Hope: So, and you have kind of a separate part of your business with, that’s just focuses on the military, right? 

Melissa: Yes. So I facilitate human optimization practices is what we kind of come from the framework of, you know, referring to it as like integrative non physical training.

Utilizing mindfulness, visualizations, focused, oriented, concentration, mindset oriented tools. And I LOL on the side because it’s totally just yoga, but 

Hope: whatever works 

Melissa: exactly. And that’s the point of adaptive is all right. So my interest is really taking the traits of this and be able to apply it. That helps with improving soldier readiness, family resiliency.

And all those things that are really important for our nation to be protective and our military to be well, so. 

Hope: [00:17:00] And how did you get into that? How did that come about? 

Melissa: So, going back, when I was 19, and I was getting married, or I got married, I was at the University of North Carolina Asheville, so I’m in Asheville, North Carolina, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.

I just got married, I was dropping out of college to pursue yoga therapy, or yoga teaching, yoga therapy, And during that time, my husband was deployed, and somebody had sent me, and this is really what initiated me to pursue teacher training in the first place, is all the information that was coming out about how it helps the military.

So from the very beginning, my hope was, and my cute little idea, was I will just teach yoga. We’ll go from base to base, and I’ll teach yoga. And here I am 10 years later, and that’s exactly what I did. 

Hope: So that’s where it all started, was you, that’s where your yoga journey started. You started with teaching for the military.

Melissa: Yeah, as far as the teacher goes. Yeah. Yeah. 

Hope: So were you teaching on the bases? 

Melissa: Mm [00:18:00] hmm. Yeah, so I taught with MWR, which is the military fitness facility. So when I finally moved to Fort Bragg, the Actually, this is kind of a funny story, too. This is proof that, like, you think you know what your life is going to be, and you get really attached, but it’s actually that rejection is the best thing that can happen.

Absolutely. Um, I thought I was going to teach for the studio there, because at that time, there really wasn’t a lot of yoga studios, so I was expecting to teach at the studio, which, Now as a studio owner, I get it. Like, summer is the worst time to hire people. Right. And, you know, so, but I go and they don’t need instructors and I’m in the parking lot crying and I’m like, Okay, what am I gonna do now?

And, um, I went on Craigslist. And I found my then eventually going to be business partner and I opened a studio with her in Fayetteville So while I was doing the yoga there I was also doing stuff on fort sam like or it’s not for sam. Sorry fort bragg teaching yoga with mwr fulfilling unit requests So all of that stuff was kind of preparing me For where we are today where we’re [00:19:00] filling mill my body Which is my program that is being piloted on fort sam right now where we’re fulfilling unit requests and providing family resources. 

Hope: That’s what I was gonna ask. So are you teaching yoga? You’re doing more than just teaching yoga for these people, right? 

Melissa: Yes. 

Hope: Yeah, so what is that with the human or the family resources? What does that entail? 

Melissa: So it’s teaching people self regulatory tools that they can do on their own to manage stress. So, with what we have going on right now, Mill Mine Body has two components to it.

We have our studio that is the first yoga studio that’s operating with a full schedule on Fort Sam on the military base. And then we have an online program called the Foundations Course. So, the Foundations Course was designed to help military spouses. address self purpose, career development, and combat isolation.

So creating connection and community. The way the program works is it’s a 50 hour, kind of almost like a teacher training. They get to learn how to develop their home practice. They’re learning about the [00:20:00] modality of yoga, mindfulness, stress management, um, lots of self care techniques. When they go through the program, they get a completion certification.

So it’s like I did 50 hours of mindfulness, whatever that means. But certifications are good because it’s hard at military spouses can really struggle building their resumes. Right. And in order to get that though, they’re required to attend four classes at a minimum, our Fort Sam yoga studio. So then we have several military spouses coming together to practice yoga together, going through this course to build that community.

And then the course itself is really designed to help empower them to connect with their deeper purpose and You know again regulation tools and yoga has a weird way with making people feel like oh like my presence matters And i’m part of this and 

Hope: yeah, I have a purpose 

Melissa: Exactly. 

Hope: Well, so with what you’re teaching there is that are these also things that you teach out of your studio as well? Like do you have the same kind of resources for people that come to your studio? 

Melissa: So we’ve done different, uh unit requests [00:21:00] that we give workshops to the group or to like a specific You Like a floor at BAMC or something like the different providers. So we can do specialized workshops and stuff for them.

We have just a basic class schedule and one of the classes on the schedule include, it’s a family yoga class. So, cause the big challenge for military spouses is that, you know, you don’t have family nearby and many have children and especially little ones. So this allows them to bring their two year old, three year old, you know, baby, little baby to come and do yoga with them.

Hope: How fun! That’s super cool. So, then, at your studio, okay, so you have the military part, and then you have your studio. What Other ways are you kind of teaching self care to people at your yoga studio? 

Melissa: Yeah. So the studio on Fort Sam, as I said, we’re really trying to harness a place of community and that that space is located inside the VRC, the Vogel Resiliency Center.

So there’s that and we collaborate with them a lot. And [00:22:00] then the studio, my civilian side, yoga studio. So Mel Marie yoga, we have a lot of creative workshops. So other than, um, You know, we do a lot of like educational workshops. So teaching people about like yoga for depression, the chakra modality, those kinds of workshops to journaling and energy medicine and sound baths and a lot of creative based workshops because like vision boards and things like that. So, 

Hope: yeah. And you are one thing I did leave out earlier is you are, you’re an author cause you have a couple of books and so you, Dabble in the world of poetry and so how do you kind of connect those two worlds your poetry world and your yoga world? 

Melissa: So you wouldn’t think at first sight that they’re super connected But there’s two huge ways that the poetry and the writing is so interlinked with the yoga practice So, first of all, for me, it’s a big piece of my authentic languaging.

And, years ago, I’ve had students over the years just be like, Oh, [00:23:00] if I could bottle up your words and just have them in one place, and You need to write a book that has all the things we say in yoga, and that piece. But then also, there’s a modality called narrative psychology, so narrative healing, and this is all about articulating, like, having, like poetry, there’s this quote that I love, and it’s like, there’s nothing more intimate than the space between the poet and the reader.

Because it’s like, oh, I get you and have been every time we read things that can take our, we call them biological disruptors. And for a lot of people right now, you’re dealing with a biological or biographical disruption. So the, you know, the COVID 19 and everything that’s going on, it’s completely stopped life.

And for some people, it can feel very traumatic. And have big disruptors in our lives, those are biographical disruptions. And when we endure experiences like that, reading things that resonate really help us survive that. It creates co regulation, it creates new [00:24:00] pathways in the brain that help us with resiliency and neuroplasticity.

So there’s awesome benefits that come from resonating and reading things. You know, so with that work, it’s also part of the work I want to give out to the world is my poetry. Some of it is Love and light and some of it’s real because I’m a human too and I got the feels. 

Hope: Yeah 

Melissa: Super connected and those are all under the scope of mind body medicine.

Hope: And so how are you using that? Like what are I guess what are or maybe if you have like stories of how this has actually helped people Like what do you see like with what you’re dealing with mind body medicine? Like what are things that are happening to people that you come in contact with? 

Melissa: So I think there’s a few things.

The first is it there’s aha moments that happen of I’m not alone or that’s exactly how I feel and being able to articulate it and make meaning from. That’s a big piece of our ability to witness it and to let it go. I think it’s really hard to let [00:25:00] things go if you don’t understand it or you don’t know how to comprehend it and the power of narrative healing or even.

In a yoga practice when you might be in pigeon pose or maybe a down dog and it just like a wave comes over you Of like oh, okay. So this is what it’s like not to abuse my body anymore, right? It’s those moments that allow us to fold the narrative into a new chapter that we can really let go of something That we’ve been carrying So I think that first of all, it gives an aha moment or a resonation that makes sense.

I think another piece is that it makes people feel good. Something that I’m really passionate about is creating pleasurable neuromuscular pathways. So. I want to help people develop a framework in their mind and body that they can feel safe and good in their body. So, for example, someone in recovery, maybe someone is still, like, they may have had cancer several years ago, but they’re still learning how to reclaim [00:26:00] their body and reconcile those experiences.

You know, this body is a war zone. How do you feel safe in your body? And when you start to teach or these moments where it’s like, wow, like having grace or compassion, or like I was, when we were in India recently, I was teaching a yoga class and one of the things I love to say or talk about is the theme of breaking the heart open to let new light shine in.

And, you know, for one of the participants on the experience, it was like, okay, we, I’m in a new chapter, I need to let go. And she’s like, Let that light in and it really resonated with her in that moment to feel Fresh and clean so the power of language It’s really a vehicle to get people to feel a certain way and hopefully to feel good in their body. 

Hope: For sure and so, with your mind body medicine and all of that, well, I guess let’s back up.

So, you, because I do want to, I wanted to let everybody know kind of your story, your journey, and you’ve mentioned a little [00:27:00] bit of it. So, you started, I guess, where was, where was your interest first peaked with yoga? 

Melissa: So, my interest was first peaked, it was in 2009. I had lost my best friend in a car accident.

And after that, Her dad, her, so her sister and I, obviously they’re like family and they’re still family to me today, but He had these yoga tapes, these Rodney Yee Yoga tapes and we were like doing them in the playroom. I was like, I like this and it started from there Then I started doing them at home every morning.

It was like my junior year in high school I was doing yoga almost every morning, but I wasn’t doing it in a in a healthy way I was doing it to like stay skinny and like to like, you know It was just it wasn’t a healthy framework of how I was doing it It wasn’t until and also I was the captain of our soccer team 

So I led stretching so I was interested in like having innovative stretches for the team to do But then when I got to college [00:28:00] I started attending a yoga class and we, we all have that yoga teacher who changed our life and she was there in Asheville and I was attending her class and it just, I mean it’s, it’s really funny because I was so unhealthy making like self destructive choices at the time but I’d go to yoga and In that, that hour, I just felt like, I just always felt so good, and I like, I mean, just breakthrough stuff for me, because I struggled with a lot of, like, self acceptance, and of course, managing grief, and anger, and things like that, so when, over time, I was talking to her, and it was her who first suggested that, well, why don’t you become a yoga teacher?

So, it really happened, like, it was like two years of practice, like a solid two years, but I never went to a studio, and her name’s Mackenzie, but it was her first, it was her class that was the first actual class that I’d gone to, and to this day, she’s still like my favorite teacher ever. Yeah, my experiences I had with her just profound and that’s what and then [00:29:00] I did exactly like I went to Asheville Yoga Center for my teacher treating my 200 and it was amazing.

So I was hooked from there. 

Hope: Yeah, yeah, that’s so cool. So for people who want to kind of Get more into the self care realm and maybe they don’t know where to start and they’re you know I think a lot of times people get like Scared of like the woo woo part of yoga and so they’re like, you know They don’t really know what to do.

Like I want to take care of myself I want to kind of like dabble into this mind body thing But I don’t know what to do because yoga is too woo woo. And so, what are you, do you have any like tips or things that people can do to kind of get, like, I guess kind of change their headspace, but kind of get into that?

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s a really important question to ask. So, the first thing is to recognize that every teacher has different vibes and styles. If you go to a class that is very vacuous and feels like, Energetically ditzy and, you know, has that vibe. That doesn’t mean that every class is going to [00:30:00] be like that.

That just might not be the teacher for you and that it’s okay to not participate in anything you don’t want to participate in. Now, of course you don’t have to be rude, but you don’t have to partake. And if anybody’s ever forcing you to do something in a class, that’s not normal. That’s not okay. And I just want you to know that it’s okay to say no, you can leave.

Like you have free will in classes. That’s never okay. So. The first is recognizing that that’s not every, if you have that experience, it’s not everywhere. The second piece is a lot of the, like, quantum healing, like Reiki, for example, or the crystals, It really is founded on science. The problem is, is that the way it’s been communicated has just been very vacuous.

You know, like for example, colors, we do know because of quantum physics, that colors have a specific vibrational frequency and that they change the energetic frequency in your body. And to really just in a moment, just kind of simplify something for you guys. If you understand your cells, if you all remember back in high school science class, you probably learned about mitochondria.[00:31:00] 

And this is your energy powerhouse in your cell. It’s really important that these guys are working and vital and healthy for appropriate cell to cell communication to occur And so different frequency energy points, right? So when I say energy, it’s literally like vitality How awake you feel how the way food makes you feel when you walk into a red room versus a black room versus a green room That all has an effect on how your body receives energetic frequency.

So everything is based in science You It’s just again, it’s the way it’s articulated and there’s a lot of really great Podcasts out there to help you make sense of this stuff great books out there In fact, my first book the innate design is all about how do you integrate the chakra modality in health care?

And my co author is an army medicine physician. So we debunk all the ditzy Woo woo stuff from it, because it all comes down to your neuroendocrine system and gout junction cells. So a big piece of this is just education. 

Hope: And this is your book. 

Melissa: Yep. 

Hope: And where can [00:32:00] people find that book? 

Melissa: Amazon. 

Hope: Awesome. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I agree. My husband and I have been Getting more into the realm of learning more about, you know, the science behind all of that. I think we went to a conference recently with Dr. Joe Dispenza, and I think it’s really like, yeah, no, it was amazing. And I think that’s a weird, we talked the whole way home.

We’re like, If people just had the right education, right, because I do think it’s turned into the like this mystical thing when, I mean, I guess that’s a piece of it, but there’s actually science to back it up, right? 

Melissa: Well, and I think it’s important that if you’re a yoga teacher or some type of teacher listening to this, I mean, educate your students.

Let them know what you’re doing. And if you are just doing it and you don’t know what you’re doing, you should probably learn more about it 

so you can educate them. Yeah. 

Hope: So then what other tips do you have, people, for self care? Besides the education piece, which, of course, I think is probably first and foremost, but what else can they do?

Melissa: Well, I would say, just if we’re asking in general for [00:33:00] self care, right now, with all the stuff that’s going on, but this can even be applied later on, is the power of self massage. So that’s something I’m really passionate about integrating in my yoga sequences, is getting people comfortable to touch themselves, and I’ll tell you why, there’s two reasons.

The first is because of interoception. Interoception is your ability to tune in and know what the body is feeling within. So, there’s, and I’m not going to get too much into it, but you have this vagus nerve, and this is one of the only, uh, nerves in your body that are afferent. So, it, it sends information up to the brain.

Where most of your nerves it’s like the brain telling the body so this helps you feel it’s like I think therefore I am right like, you know, you are because you feel you are so we want to engage this so whenever you’re Doing self massage and you’re you’re noticing how that feels or even with breathing and you’re noticing how that feels you’re building that Which is huge for self regulation The other reason self massage is really amazing is because of proprioception So this is about [00:34:00] knowing your body in space And this is going to also help you feel confident move with mindfulness And it just helps you feel embodied so again Doing the different self massage and there’s so many To kind of give you guys to make it really easy is I want to say there’s no wrong way to do it Because you could just like squeeze your shoulder and like squeeze up and down your shoulder and guess what you’re getting lymphatic draining going You’re getting circulation going it’s working Okay, or you can find, like, different circular movements at your joints.

You can do all the fancy, like, hand neck stuff. But I want to invite you, whether you’re just sitting to start massaging, even at the temples, around your hairline, just starting to massage your body to get circulation going. It’s going to energize you, and it’s going to start to make you feel safe in your body.

And there’s a lot of lovely other benefits. The next thing I would say about self massage techniques, because again, you can Google this stuff is that if you’re doing, we are very blessed right now that there’s so many options for live stream yoga classes and fitness [00:35:00] classes, and you don’t have to worry about people thinking you look weird doing this because no one’s watching maybe your kid or your dog, but.

I want to encourage you to start massaging yourself in the practice, so if you’re holding something, to maybe breathe into and massage your joint in circles and, you know, just get more circulation in your body and notice how that feels. Especially right now with this social distancing, we don’t necessarily have to be without touch.

You are, the purpose of my title, The Innate Design, is to acknowledge how we have this innate healing capacity within us and that all of the love and abundance, we can really source that from within. 

Hope: Yeah, and now I want to touch on that too, because I wanted to ask you that earlier and then, I got out of my question.

So I want to talk more about that and how what else we can do to kind of harness that 

Melissa: so to harness the Self massage or the innate or innate healing? 

Hope: Yes, ornate healing. 

Melissa: Yeah Okay, so obviously self touch you have agency to do that for yourself. Another thing that we [00:36:00] have is our breath so breathing Which, one of the things that’s really my, a fun way to recognize how the difference and importance of your breath is, is by one, noticing if your hands, if your hands are in fists.

When you breathe, you’re not going to have as much breath capacity. So breathing and spread your fingers. And I would encourage you almost to like spread your fingers as far and wide as you can and take a big breath in and then let that out. And that’s a really nice way to just start breathing and really expanding your lungs.

I don’t know if this is true, but someone told me that when you spread your fingers, it opens up. The, each rib in your intercostal muscles, yeah, I don’t know if that’s real. 

Hope: That’s super cool. 

Melissa: But it feels like it does, so. 

Hope: Yeah, totally. 

Melissa: Yeah. I don’t know. Exactly. But, so your breath. And of course there’s other great breathing techniques, like square breathing is a really good one.

So you can lay down, you can sit up, and you inhale for one, two, three, four. Hold 1, 2, 3, 4. Exhale 1, Hold [00:37:00] 4. Inhale 1, so you’re, you’re making a square with your breath. So that’s another really good, I mean, these are innate things and if you want to get really nerdy, the amount of research out there that shows and demonstrates how this stuff combats stress related illnesses, which are like, I mean, that’s where like 80 percent of our healthcare costs are allocated towards.

is the non communicable diseases, so we know that breathing is a huge tool for downregulation and for getting you centered. And then, I guess I’ll give you one more self care tool. So, the environment you’re in, which a lot of us at this moment, and hopefully we’ll be past this, but this is still relevant.

The environment you’re sitting in is going to also can contribute to your vibe. This goes back to quantum mechanics and the, the, the stuff that we really don’t understand about energy. But it’s the truth, like the color, the way things are sitting in your room. And just to let you know, there’s actually an entire field in yoga about this called Vastuu.

V A S T U U It’s basically Vedic Feng Shui. So, where prana flows [00:38:00] in the room is really important. What I would suggest is take time to rearrange the furniture as you needed. Pull out the lovely, cozy things, things that you enjoy to look at. Make sure those are in the areas that you pass by frequently.

Right now, if you’re not having guests over, pull the really fancy stuff out of the guest room and put it in your kitchen. Arrange things so it feels really yummy right now. Because sometimes when we lean into those things, or we light the candle we’ve been saying, or Finally use that cooking stuff that we’ve been holding off on.

There’s something that happens for us, not only chemically in our brain, but also it teaches us that we can regulate. We can have what we need when we need it makes you feel good. 

Hope: I love those tips. No, it’s super practical that people can really apply. I love that. So, where can people find more about you specifically?

Melissa: So, 

I’m on Instagram at melmarieyoga and then my website melmarieyoga. com. I have a poetry book. My poetry name is Mel [00:39:00] Marie, so if you go on Amazon, you can look up From Deserts to Gardens by Mel Marie and that’s my poetry book, but yeah. And I’m super accessible and like friendly and everything so if you have questions feel free to DM me or email me, so 

Hope: yeah thank you so much Melissa, and then your yoga studios.

Where can they go to visit you in the studio? 

Melissa: Yeah, so you in order to go to the military one you have to have a military ID card But as I said, that’s a vulgar resiliency center and the information for that is mill mind body calm like military mind body mill mind body calm The civilian studios is Bernie yoga.

So bernieyoga. com and we have aerial yoga there and all these fun goodies. Yeah. And then my studio in San Antonio, which is right off of worse Bach and Lock Hill Selma area across from Pam’s kitchen and the cozy corner. That is a melmarieyoga. com and we have our yoga teacher training programs. Self paced group private module several options to help you [00:40:00] get the education that you might be looking for 

Hope: Perfect, and i’ll put all that in the show notes for everybody And thank you so much melissa.

I feel like this was super enlightening just learning about all of these Tactics and it’s this is just great especially now. I think we needed we need this 

Melissa: Yeah, everything comes in its time. So I, it’s an honor to be here with you, Hope. Thank you so much for having me on. 

Hope: Yes, thank you. Thanks for listening to Hopeful and Wholesome, y’all.

If you found value in this week’s episode, please subscribe on iTunes, wherever you get your podcasts, and leave a review to let me know what you thought. I love to know what you find useful in these episodes so I know how I can provide the most value I can to my listeners. And if you have topics that you want to know more about, I’d love to hear those as well.

So shoot me a message on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. It’s at the Hope Pedraza or visit my website hopefulandwholesome. com. Thanks [00:41:00] y’all.